On 3/21/2017 1:56 PM, Jeremy Silver wrote:

I too have been having trouble finding a good way to express sand and ash and bribe for example. I think describing ground-up rock confuses people if trying to talk about sand.


Hmm. nagh pullu'pu'bogh is actually a pretty decent substitute for sand.


While on the subject of sand my wish-list extends to:

beach (n)

coast/shore (n)


We already have beach: bIQ'a' HeH. This will often work for coast or shore as well; the phrase bIQ'a' HeH doesn't show us the difference between those and beach. If I wanted to contrast an actual beach and some non-beach shoreline, I might struggle with describing a sandy beach shore and a non-sandy beach shore.


bay/inlet (n)

harbour (n)

port [as in spaceport, seaport] (n) - some variation of {vergh} combined with {veng} maybe?


Yes, vergh veng is a good substitute for a dedicated word for port, and is very much the sort of word Klingons might have for it. If you wanted to refer to the actual port in a port city, as opposed to calling a port city a port, you might call them the verghmey (cf. mebpa'mey hotel).

float [on water/in space, assuming it'll differ from {'al}] (v)

be-adrift [on water/in space] (v)

sail (n)

oar (n)

Don't know if Marc's painted himself into a corner with turning "row your boat" into "propel your ship", but a {vo'wI'} can mean a few things.


Did he translate that? I don't remember this. What is the source?

I wouldn't consider that being painted into a corner. As a song, it may not have been a precise translation. Maybe the Klingon word for row doesn't fit nicely in the meter.


That said, sometimes aiming for a phrase like {vo'meH patmey} if you want what you are describing to remain neutral to time and technology; like you don't want it to matter if the ship has sails, or if it's a fully kitted out Brel.


I could imagine an oar being called a vo'meH jan raQlu'bogh propulsion device which one manipulates by hand.


Recently I too needed something for Skull, {nach Hom} seemed to work OK but had too many syllables at the time.

 

We have a word for crossing/traversing something, but I've wanted to express things crossing like in an x or + shape before now. Do we have such a construction?


Don't think so, though something about that is nagging me. I'm also thinking you might do something with Don and maybe vel, but it's clumsy.


 I'd also vote for a noun for snow as in the past using something like {chuch qutmey} seemed a bit complicated.

 

Consider there to be another vote for *tide (n)* here too, had to make do with something like big wave recently. Though now I think about it some way of combining {maS} and {yu'egh} might work. Can you do something like {maSmo' yu'egh}?


That would violate the rule in TKD 3.4: "When the noun-noun construction is used, only the second noun can take syntactic suffixes (Type 5)." You might go with something like yu'egh chenmoHbogh maS wave which the moon forms, or just maS yu'egh moon wave. I don't like it. Tides aren't reeeaaallly a wave; I might look at something having to do with bIQ'a' 'Iv ocean's altitude or something like that.


 Do we have a usual way of expressing the concept of "beyond" like:

On the other side of the mountain, there is a prison kind of thing?

or Past the crossroads someone did something?


HuD latlh Dop retlhDaq bIghHa' tu'lu' in the area next to the mountain's other side there is a prison. But that doesn't cover phrases like far over the Misty Mountains cold, where the thing you're talking about isn't immediately next to the other side of the mountain. You might play with something like pa' Hop faraway thereabouts. This starts to run into "sometimes inaccurate but never approximate" territory. 

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name