[tlhIngan Hol] Klingon Word of the Day: roSmaH

Mark E. Shoulson mark at kli.org
Wed Sep 20 05:28:46 PDT 2023


On 9/19/23 23:44, James Landau via tlhIngan-Hol wrote:
> Nice to see a word I requested becoming KWotD! I was the one who asked 
> for a word for "chromosome" on chabal tetlh, back in 2020 or 2021. (My 
> other request that year, "Jew", still has yet to make it in.)
>
Earth-specific cultural words are tricky and presumably will be 
loan-words.  But there's non-canon for this already.  And thereon hangs 
a tale...

Let's think back to 1993, in Seattle.  My wife and I were visiting for a 
joint meetup-party of two online games.  And things were kicking off at 
a restaurant where people were all meeting up.  Something like a dozen 
of us walk into the restaurant, where we had a reservation, and were 
shown to our table, and we told the staff that we were still expecting 
two more people, who should be shown to the table when they arrived.  
"Can you give us names or descriptions of the people yet to arrive, so 
we'll know to bring them here?"  We only said, "You'll know them when 
you see them." Because the two yet to arrive were flying in from Boston, 
in costume.  One was our beloved Captain Krankor, in full Klingon 
regalia (this was before 9/11, when you could get away with more crap on 
airlines, though as it happens this was in fact the very week that the 
WTC was bombed the first time.)  The other was our friend Jason Scott, 
who was wearing a full-body cow suit.  So, yeah, they knew them when 
they saw them.

At the table, there was certainly some Klingon spoken.  Krankor and I 
were both there, as was DrujIv (an active Klingonist and a good friend 
until her untimely passing a few years later of breast cancer).  (was 
trI'qal there?  not sure.)  Anyway, my wife had crocheted a kippah 
(skullcap that observant Jews often wear) for Krankor, even though he 
doesn't wear one (he's a committed atheist, actually, but is of Jewish 
extraction), with Klingon trefoils on it and his name in pIqaD and 
"Qapla'" stitched on the inside.  Krankor loved it and laughed and put 
it on his said and proclaimed:

"DaH yIyID!"

A bilingual pun.  At which I laughed so hard that I smacked my head on 
the corner of the table and cut my forehead open.  And ever since then I 
have been able to claim truthfully that "I have held conversations in 
Klingon, and have a scar to prove it!"

So, year, we've used "*yIDwI'" for "Jew" from time to time.

~mark
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.kli.org/pipermail/tlhingan-hol-kli.org/attachments/20230920/1db002d6/attachment.htm>


More information about the tlhIngan-Hol mailing list