If it is a gutting blade, one might have expected *ghab’etlh, derived from
ghab meat from midsection of animal:
(KGT 87): Large animals are usually chopped into pieces, sometimes with attention paid to which piece is which... sometimes not (the
ghab, for example, is just a chunk of the midsection of an animal, including any organs that may have remained attached after the carving).
(KGT 27): The word ghab, however, which refers to any chunk of the midsection of an animal, has slightly varying meanings depending on region. In most of the empire, including the First City,
ghab is rather inclusive: basically, whatever was chopped off the animal as a single piece, with or without bones or internal organs.
However most people seem to hear ghob (presumably rhyming with English
probe) and not ghab (which would rhymes with gob, blob):
(qa'vaj, 1/08): It's definitely ghob by pronunciation. It sounds like
HHob'ek.
(SuStel, 4/09/2012): I just happened to be replaying it this weekend, and clicked on the weapon in question. The woman speaking the information doesn't have perfect pronunciation, but it sounds very much like
Qob 'etlh.
TREK TRIVIA:
The Andorians use an analogous weapon called an ushaan-tor (originally an ice-miner's tool with a convex, or curved-outward, serrated blade) in the
Ushaan, a traditional Andorian duel-to-the-death, which was seen in ENT "United".
This and the earlier irrealis thread remind me of something Worf said to Iyaaran Ambassador Byleth, who had accused Worf of lying during a poker game in TNG "Liaisons": "If you were not an ambassador I would disembowel you right
now!"
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons
From: Felix Malmenbeck
Indeed. Here is an attempt to transcribe the language note for *ghob'etlh* (via
http://klingonska.org/canon/1996-04-kcd.txt ):
"A gutting device used in balance with a shield when practicing the Klingon
warrior fighting style of *qIjatlh (or *qIjat). One of three weapons
traditionally displayed on the {nuH bey'}."
To see what it looks like, go here:
https://hol.kag.org/page/KLL/WEAPON.TXT.html?o=DevwIW005-EN
... and click on {nuH bey'}. It's the small weapon at the top of the display.
//loghaD
From: mayqel qunenoS <mihkoun@gmail.com>
A little bird told me, that {ghob'etlh} is a word spoken on KCD.
Because it has only been spoken (according to the little bird), its exact spelling is unknown. Perhaps it is Qob'etlh, perhaps it is ghab'etlh.
~ nI'ghma