[tlhIngan Hol] moon ph(r)ases, new adverbial {loQHa'}

[Will Martin]

Okrand is not an astronomer, and we don’t know how standardized his English terms for moon phases are. Maltz is also not an astronomer.

Terms for Moon phases are illogical and arbitrary. 

Note that when you look at what is a ½ illuminated Moon, we call it a Quarter Moon, because it is 1/4 of the way through a full cycle, not because it is 1/4 illuminated. It’s half illuminated. 

The logic that calls a Full Moon a Full Moon (fully illuminated) could call a Quarter Moon a “Half Moon”, but there is no phase of the moon known as “Half Moon”.

We could easily call a New Moon an Empty Moon by the same logic that calls the Full Moon “Full".

Waxing and Waning refer to which direction the change is happening — something you can’t see. You only know this by tracking the changes in the phase of the moon, or by noting the time of Moonrise and knowing that a New Moon rises with the Sun, a Quarter Moon rises or sets at Noon, and a Full Moon rises at Sunset (with adjustments for the observer’s latitude).

Gibbous is closer to Full than New. Quarter is closer to New than Full.

It’s all arbitrary and based, not on the appearance of the Moon, but on it’s timing within the current cycle, which is not obvious (unless you use the Moon Phase face on your Apple Watch, like I do). It’s now a Waning Crescent, as I speak, but three days from now, it will be New, not that it’s all that visible now...

We don’t know that Klingons think of their moon, Praxis, that way, and maybe they don’t think about phases at all, now that Praxis is gone.

We also don’t know if Klingons have been a multi-planet culture long enough to forget that there is any significance at all to Moon phases, but if you are asking a Klingon how to translate Terran Moon phases, they’ll probably come up with something like what Maltz and Okrand have revealed.

It doesn’t map directly.

Meanwhile, “Crescent Moon” is not technically a Moon phase. It’s a description of the Moon when it is closer to New than a fully waxed Quarter. A crescent is a shape with a concave boundary. A Gibbous Moon doesn’t have a concave boundary. That’s probably why the description “A little bit not hidden” applies.

pItlh

charghwI’ ‘utlh
(ghaH, ghaH, -Daj)




> On May 27, 2022, at 12:24 AM, De'vID <de.vid.jonpin at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> (p. 181, line 31) {chu'DI' maS 'ej qaStaHvIS ram} "On the night of the new moon"
> 
> De'vID:
> Not even every Terran language refers to the first lunar phase (opposite of a "full" moon) as a "new" moon. The issue here is whether this isn't an Anglicism/Terranism, or if Klingons also say the moon is “new".
> 
> MO:
> >>> {chu’DI’ maS}, of course, means “when the moon is/was new” (not “the new moon”), but your point is a good one. Klingons would probably refer to the new moon in the same way they refer to other phases of the moon.
> 
> “Full moon” {maS’e’ So’bogh pagh} is “moon that nothing hides.”
> 
> “Crescent moon” (pp. 138-139 of paq’batlh) is {maS’e’ loQ So’be’bogh QIb} “moon that a shadow doesn’t slightly hide,” that is, the shadow hides most of the moon, but not all of it. 
> 
> What these have in common is the idea that the moon is fully or partially or not at all hidden. What’s doing/causing the hiding is of less importance. So while using {QIb} when describing phases of the moon is perfectly fine and not at all uncommon, it is not necessary.
> 
> Another way of referring to a “crescent moon” is {maS loQHa’ So’lu’bogh} “moon that is considerably/appreciably hidden.”  And {maS loQ So’lu’bogh} “moon that is slightly hidden” refers to a mostly full moon.
> 
> Now, back to “new moon.” It follows the same pattern: {maS So’lu’chu’bogh} “moon that is perfectly hidden.”
> 
> These moon phrases [sic] are descriptions. They’re commonly used, but they’re not frozen forms. So they can be manipulated grammatically.
> 
> For line 31, p. 181, the idea is it’s the night when the new moon is happening (if a new moon can be said to happen), thus:
> {qaStaHvIS ram, maS So’lu’chu’DI’} “while the night was occuring, when the moon was perfectly hidden” or, in more natural English, “at night when the moon was new.”
> 
> (end of message)
> 
> Note the new adverbial {loQHa'} "considerably, appreciably".
> 
> -- 
> De'vID
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