On Fri, 7 Feb 2020 at 15:57, Lieven L. Litaer <levinius@gmx.de> wrote:
I think my question more about English than Klingon.
Regarding the word {tlhegh jIrmoHwI'} which is translated as "windlass", what other kinds of {X jIrmoHwI'} would make sense, and how would you translate {jIrmoHwI'} without doing it literally?
In other words, is there a "windlass" not used with a rope?
Sure, a (spinning) reel on a fishing rod. It's basically the same type of thing as a windlass, i.e., a device which causes a line (in this case, a fishing line) to be wrapped around something due to rotation. I'm not sure whether a fishing line would be considered a {tlhegh} or a {SIrgh}, though. Maybe, to a Klingon, a fishing rod is a windlass for catching fish. A bobbin on a sewing machine, however, definitely works with a thread, so it's a {SIrgh jIrmoHwI'}. A wire spooling machine might be a {baS SIrgh jIrmoHwI'}, though maybe it'll be a {baS tlhegh jIrmoHwI'} if we're talking about industrial-sized machines. Maybe a thing that you wind your garden (water) hose around is a {qatlhDa' vaD jIrmoHwI'} (or whatever the Klingon word for "(water) hose" is). A device that rewinds a cassette might be a {qoSta' jIrmoHwI'}. (Perhaps that's an alternative to calling it a {ghojmeH ghItlhwI'}!) I imagine that, instead of a rope, you could have a chain on a {jIrmoHwI'} to make a {mIr jIrmoHwI'}. Many things that can be wound around an axis by spinning are long, flexible, and thin (relative to the spool). But if you can wind a ribbon, can you wind a roll of paper (e.g., toilet paper or paper towel)? That is, does {nav jIrmoHwI'} make sense? Or would these be a kind of {Qumran} (!!!)? Also, I wonder if length is necessary. For example, might the platen on a typewriter or a roller on some kinds of printers be considered a {nav jIrmoHwI'}, even if the {nav} does not (or is not supposed to) end up wrapped around the device? If I had to abstract {jIrmoHwI'} in all of these devices and come up with a translation, I'd probably call it a "reel/spool winder". -- De'vID