[tlhIngan Hol] Klingon Word of the Day: vegh

[Steven Boozer]

Klingon word: vegh
Part of speech: verb
Definition: go through (an open door, a tunnel, etc.)
Source: qep'a' loSDIch
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bISuvtaHvIS qarDaS bIghHa' peQ botjan Daveghchu' 
Fight your way beyond magnetic shield of Cardassian prison. (MKE)

QIStaq qoD DISDaq tu''egh qeylIS'e' DIS veghlu'chugh pa' Heghpu'bogh nuvpu' qa'pu' tu'lu' 
In the heart of Kri'stak, Kahless finds himself in a cave leading to the world beyond the living. (PB)

lojmItDaj veghta'DI' jubbe'wI' yInqa'meH chegh 'e' botnIS qotar qeylIS HoHmeH qotar qeylIS SamnIS 
Still, Kotar cannot let a mortal pass his gates and return alive, Kahless must be hunted down and killed. (PB)

ghe'tor vegh Duj | Suto'vo'qor lojmItmey 'el Duj 
The barge went through Gre'thor into the gates of Sto-vo-kor (PB; vetted by MO in PB2)


SuSvaj's notes read "go through (an existing opening)." [date?]

(DloraH  [date?]):  Subject: the thing that is doing the moving, object: the thing which the subject is going through. Examples: the bird goes through the window (an open window), the train goes through the tunnel, he goes through the door (an open door). Notice in these examples the subject does NOT physically touch the object; the bird going through an open window doesn't touch anything. This word does NOT work for: the bullet went through his heart, his fist went through the wall. In these examples the subject physically touches the object; the bullet touched the heart as it went through it. 

(charghwI' [date?]):  Note that this does mean: a man goes through an open door, a bird goes through an open window or a woman goes through a tunnel. Note that it explicitly does NOT mean: a man's fist goes through a closed door, an arrow goes through a bird's heart or a woman goes through a forest. 

(ghunchu'wI' [date?])  [This was the word the winning team at qep'a' loSDIch won from Marc Okrand as their grand prize.]  As the leader of the "red team" ... we requested the verb "go through", and we provided four sentences to Marc as examples of what we meant. As it turns out, there are at least three different concepts that fit what we use go through for in English, and we had to choose the one we wanted. The choices were: the bullet goes through the man's heart, the hunter goes through the forest, and the train goes through the tunnel, with the last one being the same idea as the bird goes through the window. So we asked for "the bird goes through the window" and we received the verb {vegh}. This does not apply if the window is closed, however; that seems to be yet another concept... Linguistic joke department: Someone quickly complained to Marc Okrand that he had given us a vague answer, and without a pause or blink or even a breath, Marc immediately agreed.

(charghwI' [date?]):  There has to be a boundary around the path and you have to pass from open to restricted to open in order to {vegh}. At one point, Okrand did use the word successfully in his description.

(Qov [date?]):  I wrote it down as "go through (an existing aperture)" and that seems to correctly represent the things it can and can't mean.

(IMO, HQ 7.4 [Dec. 1998]):  When asked about {bav}, Okrand says "You don't need a {-Daq}. Just use whatever it is that you are orbiting. When subsequently asked about {vegh}, Okrand says "Same thing." 

(QeS, 7/29/2013):  … while we were travelling to Fort Mifflin, the topic of the new word {QI} "bridge" came up in conversation in Lawrence's car, and I took the opportunity to ask Marc an associated question. Since we lack a verb for to go across in the sense of crossing a river, I've wondered for a while now as to whether {vegh} "go through" might be appropriate. When I asked Marc this, he explained that in order to sensibly talk about {vegh}-ing a bridge, the bridge would have to be covered over -- that is, some form of {'och}. So basically, it seems that to {vegh} an object, the object must completely encircle the vector of travel. (Marc did also add that it need not be pedantically exact: a meshwork or cage-like object can also be {vegh}-ed, so long as the object is still essentially ring-like or tunnel-like.)

(De’vID, 6/24/2022 in re PB2):  Previously, we'd been told that {vegh} means to go through an opening of some sort, like a door or tunnel, but not going through a forest. The issue was whether going through Gre'thor isn't like going through a forest.
    The explanation is that this usage of {vegh} is fine, because earlier in the chapter, it said that "They set sail over the Blood River / To Gre'thor, or so Kahless thought". So {ghe'tor vegh Duj} means that the Barge went through Gre'thor as if it were merely an opening or passage to Sto-vo-kor. The role of Gre'thor is as an opening to get to somewhere else. So in context, this usage of {vegh} actually makes sense. There's another place in the paq'batlh where {DIS} "cave" is the object of {vegh}. Kahless goes through the cave to reach the world beyond the living. Again, this is fine, for the same reason. 
    The point of the "tunnel" and "forest" examples when the word was originally given was that the object of {vegh} is an opening one passes through to get somewhere, not that those specific things can and can't, respectively, be the object of {vegh}. If someone enters a tunnel to explore it, spending a lot of time there wandering around to collect rocks or bugs or something, and comes out the other end by happenstance, it isn't {vegh}. If there's a tunnel-like path made by trees in an otherwise dense forest and one goes through it to reach the castle in the middle because that's the way to get there, that can be {vegh}. 
    Whenever Dr. Okrand gives an example to illustrate how something can and can't be used, it always implies "typically" or "generally" or "usually", because of course one can find exceptions in atypical cases. One typically goes through a tunnel to reach the other end in a straightforward way; one typically goes through a forest in a meandering way. 
    There are a couple of usages of {vegh} with {lojmIt[mey]} in the paq'batlh, and these are obviously fine and uncontroversial. 

PUN: "vague" ?!

SEE ALSO:
tol 		go through, pass through, pass among (v)
'aw 		go through, pass through (matter) (v)

chIq 		cross, traverse (v)
vech 		cross (as in a bridge crossing a river, etc.) (v)

vIH 		move, be in motion (v)
‘el 		enter (v)
jeq 		protrude from (v)

DIn 		open entryway (n)
qa'rI' 		end (of corridor, tunnel, conduit, Jeffries tube, 
		sewer, road, bridge, long field, etc.) (n)

[My notes are vague:  In what year did qep'a' loSDIch take place?]


--
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.