[tlhIngan Hol] Klingon Word of the Day: SuD

James Landau savegraduation at yahoo.com
Wed Feb 22 16:53:42 PST 2023


 See also the note on expressing "be blonde" as *SuD 'ej wov* at http://www.qephom.de/book/qepHom2021_p_17.jpg

>Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2023 15:35:02 +0000
>From: Steven Boozer <sboozer at uchicago.edu>
>Subject: Re: [tlhIngan Hol] Klingon Word of the Day: SuD>>
>Klingon Word of the Day for Wednesday, February 22, 2023
>
>Klingon word: SuD
>Part of speech: verb
>Definition: be green, be blue, be yellow
>_______________________________________________
>
>SuD 'ej wov 
>(it) is {SuD} and light (KGT; a way to refer to a yellowish tinge)
>
>SuD 'ach wov 
>[(it) is] {SuD} but light (KGT; is also heard)
>
>SuD Dargh 'ej wov 
>The tea is {SuD} and light. (KGT)
>
>SuDbogh Dargh 'ej wovbogh 
>The tea that is {SuD} and light. (KGT)
>
>(KGT 81-82):  Compared to Federation Standard, Klingon terminology associated with colors is rather limited. First of all, there is >no noun meaning color. There is, however, a verb, {nguv}, which means something like "be dyed, stained, tinted", though it is >seldom used except in the phrase {chay' nguv} ("How is [it] tinted?") or when suffixed with {-moH} ("cause") in the form {nguvmoH} >("dye, tint, stain"; that is, "cause to be dyed," etc.)
>
>(KGT 82):  Various devices are employed when it is necessary to talk about colors more precisely. The suffix {-qu'} is useful as in >{Doqqu'} (red) and {SuDqu'} (green). {wov} and {Hurgh} may also modify colors as in {SuD 'ej wov} (yellow) or objects may be >compared to something else that typically has a particular color as in {Doq 'ej beqpuj rur} "(it) is {Doq} and resembles {beqpuj}" (an >orange mineral).  [...] The fact that neither {SuD} nor {Doq} includes what is called violet or purple in Federation Standard may be >related to Klingon physiology--that is, exactly how the Klingon eye processes different wavelengths of light. 
>
>(startrek.klingon 2/1998):  "If the context is clear (such as contrasting a brown thing with a thing that cannot be described as {Doq}, >such as something that's {SuD} "blue, green, yellow"), {Doq} alone is good enough. Thus, if there are two drinking cups, one brown >and one blue, one might say:  {HIvje' Doq qaneH} "I want the {Doq} cup" [sic! for {vIneH}]. Only the brown cup could be described >as {Doq}; the blue cup is definitely not {Doq} since it is {SuD}.
>
>(SuStel, 10/30/2009):  Klingon has four color terms: {qIj} "be black", {SuD} "be blue, green, yellow", {chIS} "be white", and {Doq} "be >red, orange". According to the theory about color terms, yellow is always a color associated with warm colors, and blue and green >are always associated with cool colors. The Klingon verb {SuD} violates the hierarchy, and Okrand has confirmed that he did this >on purpose. It is a linguistic joke.
 >[see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_term ])
>
>(IMO, HolQeD 8.3):  There is also an idiomatic phrase which conveys the idea of jealousy:  {SuD veqlargh mInDu'}.  Literally, this >means "Fek'lhr's eyes are yellow/green", but it is used to express the idea that somebody is jealous. It would be used in an >exchange such as: 
>    A:  loSmaH romulusngan SuvwI'pu' HoHta' qeng.
>    B:  SuD veqlargh mInDu'.
>    A:  Kang killed 40 Romulan warriors.
>    B:  Somebody is jealous!
>Speaker "B" is saying that speaker "A" is jealous of Kang.
>
>(SuStel, 9/03/2019):  My memory of the thing Okrand did intentionally was that according to Berlin-Kay, yellow tends to either have >its own word, or it is grouped with red and orange. The Klingon system groups it with blue and green, which makes sense if you >look at a spectrum and see that it is arbitrary whether it is grouped with red/orange or green/blue, but languages generally tend to >group it with red/orange. There is no technical reason why human languages group yellow with red and orange. They just do.
>
>(Brent Kesler, 9/04/2019):  The question is where languages draw borders between colors. The HolQeD article I dimly remember >argued that grouping yellow with green/blue is so odd it's almost alien and speculated that MO knew about the Berlin-Kay >hierarchy, and had it mind when he made up the word {SuD} in 1984.
>
>DloraH once had a web page showing the gradations between {Doq} and {SuD} at https://65.13.120.12/tlhIngan/color.jpg but it's no >longer online.  Has he moved it to another platform?  
>
>SEE:
>SuD      gamble, take a chance, take a risk (v)
>
>(PK):  {SuD} also means "take a risk", which may explain the joke:
>    A:  Doq'a' SuvwI'pu'?
>    B:  ghobe', SuD!
>    A:  Are warriors red?
>    B:  No, they are green! 
>
>SEE ALSO:
>Doq     be red/orange (v)
>nIl     be grassy/verdant (v)
  
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