kechpaja wrote:
pIvHa' be unhealthy (v) pIv be healthy (v)
Do we know whether these two verbs apply only to beings, or whether they can be used for i.e. a healthy lifestyle or healthy food?
There's a part of me that wants to translate "the food is healthy" as {pIvmoH Soj}, since it's the people doing the eating who are going to be in good healthy, not the food itself ({qagh} notwithstanding).
De'vID:
English unfortunately conflates the two different meanings of "being in a state of good health" and "being conducive to a state of good health" into one word. Some pedants insist on reserving "healthy" for the former and using "healthful" for the latter, but that battle seems to have been lost long ago: http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/healthy-or-healthful
My instincts tell me that {pIv} means only "healthy" in the sense of "being in a state of good heatlh" and not the other meaning, though I can't prove it. (Marc Okrand did once write {yIpIv!} in a get-well letter, so there's that.) For the "healthful" meaning, I'm inclined to use {pIvmoH} as you are, or {rach}.
AFAIK we have only three examples used by Okrand, all referring to people: bIpIvHa'law' You look terrible (You seem unhealthy). TKD tlhIngan yoH pIv verengan yoH rop The Klingon is braver than the Ferengi (slang) KGT yIpIv Be healthy! (Okrand to Proechel, 3/1998) [Okrand sent Glen Proechel a "get well" letter when he was hospitalized for heart and kidney failure. "I don't know that this makes that phrase the 'official' way to wish someone health in Klingon, but it is consistent with the idea that sickness is considered a weakness and a Klingon needs to be ordered to stay healthy." (Glen Proechel, 3/1998)] -- Voragh tlhIngan ghantoH pIn'a' Ca'Non Master of the Klingons