<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div>Gee, I wonder if Rick Moranis, star of “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids”, whose name, reversed and transliterated would sound a lot like {qer} would have anything to do with this Klingon verb...</div><br id="lineBreakAtBeginningOfMessage"><div>
<meta charset="UTF-8"><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div>pItlh</div><div><br></div><div>charghwI’ ‘utlh</div><div>(ghaH, ghaH, -Daj)</div><div><br></div></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
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<div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div>On Feb 6, 2025, at 10:37 AM, Steven Boozer via tlhIngan-Hol <tlhingan-hol@lists.kli.org> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div><div>Klingon word: <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>qer<br>Part of speech: <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>verb<br>Definition: <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>shrink, get smaller<br>Source: <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>QelIS boqHarmey [Klingon Alice]<br>_______________________________________________<br><br>(Lieven/Klingon Alice < MO): The word for grow (increase in size) is {Qa}. But for animals or plants growing, that is, maturing (not just increasing in size), use {nenchoH}. <br> {QaHa'} would refer to getting smaller after the thing had previously grown bigger - that is, it's losing (in length or whatever) what it had gained. So if the balloon is losing air, you could say it {QaHa'}.<br> Presumably the object is going back towards its original size (though it may not get that far or may become even smaller than it once was). <br> For "get smaller, shrink" (without the notion of having previously grown), use {qer}. Of course, depending on exactly what you want to say, you can also use {machchoH}.<br> The choice depends on whether you're focusing on just the shrinking or growing, on the one hand, or on the return to or towards the original size (or beyond!). <br> So if your main character started at their original size, and then shrank, that's {qer}. If they then started to grow, that would be {Qa} if the storyteller is just saying that they grew, but it would be {qerHa'} if the storyteller was saying that the shrinking was reversing. If the de-shrinking continued so that the character ended up bigger than they originally were, that might be {qerHa'} and then - what a surprise! - {Qa}. <br> For Pinocchio, if you're saying that after his nose grew he started telling the truth and his nose got smaller, that's probably {QaHa'}. If you'd just met the long-nosed Pinocchio for the first time and didn't know the story of the nose but saw it get smaller, you'd probably say {qer}.<br> In short, you have four words to choose from, depending on what exactly you want to say: {qer}, {qerHa'}, {Qa}, {QaHa'}. <br><br>SEE ALSO:<br>mach <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>be small (v)<br>run <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>be short [in stature] (v)<br>tIn <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>be big, large (v)<br><br>--<br>Voragh<br>Ca'Non Master of the Klingons<br><br><br>_______________________________________________<br>tlhIngan-Hol mailing list<br>tlhIngan-Hol@lists.kli.org<br>http://lists.kli.org/listinfo.cgi/tlhingan-hol-kli.org<br></div></div></blockquote></div><br></body></html>