[tlhIngan Hol] Klingon Word of the Day: togh

[Steven Boozer]

Klingon Word of the Day for Tuesday, November 21, 2023

Klingon word: togh
Part of speech: verb
Definition: count
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  cha' vI' vagh choQmey lutoghlu' 
  Number of Decks: 2.5.  (KBoP)

 (KGT 72-73):  As is well documented, the Klingon counting system was originally a ternary system (one based on three, with numbers higher than three formed from the words for one, two, and three). Later, owing to outside influences, it changed to a decimal system (based on ten). The independent words for the numbers three through nine were not originally a part of the Klingon counting system, but they had to come from somewhere. The musical scale is the likely source. The word for the fourth musical tone, {loS}, began to be used for the number four, and so on through the eighth tone, {chorgh}. (The origins of the words {Hut} [nine] and the suffix {-maH}, used in the words for ten, twenty, thirty, and so on, are obscure.)

(TKD):  Counting proceeded as follows: 1, 2, 3;  3+1, 3+2, 3+3;  2×3+1, 2×3+2, 2×3+3; 3×3+1, 3×3+2, 3×3+3;  and then it got complicated. 

The idioms {wa'maH wej} and {wa’ wa’ wa’} meaning "it's complicated" is a reference to the archaic ternary-ish counting system.  [De'vID, qepHom 2014]

(KGT 178):  The suffix {-logh}, when attached to numbers, is used to count the number of instances of something:  {wa'logh} ("once"), {cha'logh} ("twice"), {vaghlogh} ("five times").

SEE ALSO:
SIm 		calculate (v)
chel 		add (v)

mI’ 		number (n)
mI’ mob  	odd number (n)
mI’ mobHa'  	even number (n)
mI' poj  		statistics (i.e. tally) (n)
mI' tej  		mathematician (n) [N.B. two words]
mI'QeD  	mathematics (n)

--
Voragh, Ca'Non Master of the Klingons
    Please contribute relevant vocabulary from recent qep’a’mey 
    or qepHommey. I’ve fallen woefully behind in updating my files.