One might also speculate that while Klingons' eyes do become red ( http://klingonska.org/canon/2003-12-holqed-12-4.txt ) and even produce excess water when under great emotional duress (such as Kahless crying out a lake), they don't have an organ specifically for collecting that water into drops. As such, they would understand {mIn bIQ}, but find the expression {mIn 'onroS} a bit strange, as their tears come in more of a continuous stream. Spock may have been under the misconception that this meant they could not cry (as Federation knowledge of Klingon anatomy and culture were incredibly limited at the time), or perhaps he was just being overly pedantic in response to Scotty's comment that Azetbur hadn't shed "a single tear". It may also have been a comment about how the Klingon response to the death of a loved one is different from what a human might expect. //loghaD ________________________________ From: tlhIngan-Hol <tlhingan-hol-bounces@lists.kli.org> on behalf of nIqolay Q <niqolay0@gmail.com> Sent: Monday, December 3, 2018 15:12 To: tlhingan-hol@kli.org Subject: Re: [tlhIngan Hol] Marc Okrand answering some questions On Mon, Dec 3, 2018 at 8:42 AM Daniel Dadap <daniel@dadap.net<mailto:daniel@dadap.net>> wrote: Isn't it just as likely that Maltz is lying to Okrand? If tear ducts are a sensitive topic of conversation for Klingons, denying their existence could be a manifestation of his anatomical shyness. My personal explanation for this phenomenon: Klingons do cry tears, though less often than humans. The enlightened members of the Federation observed that Klingons didn't display tears during times of emotion, and somehow got it into their heads that Klingons have no tear ducts. Klingons heard about this Federation stereotype, and thought it was very funny that humans would believe this. So Maltz was just playing along with the gag when Okrand asked him about tears all those years ago, as if he was seeing how long the Federation would continue believing something so silly. Afterwards, he probably laughed about it until he cried. (Klingon humor is sometimes difficult to understand, after all.) Wild speculation, of course.