Rather like Monsieur Jourdain in Moliere’s comedy “Le Bourgeois gentilhomme”, who learns to his amazement that he has been speaking prose all his life without
knowing it:
Par ma foi! il y a plus de quarante ans que je dis de la prose sans que j'en
susse rien, et je vous suis le plus obligé du monde de m'avoir appris cela.
[Act II, scene 4]
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons
From: nIqolay Q
I think De'vID is referring to the fact that KGT claims Klingon has no noun for "color", and yet we've got one. It's an issue he's mentioned before.
My hypothesis: In the years since KGT was published, appreciation for Klingon art has increased among off-worlders, who wish to discuss art with the Klingon artists.
However, Klingon artists have found that a lot of off-worlders, especially artists, use a noun for "color". To facilitate communication about the arts, Klingon artists have started using a noun for "color":
qalmuS. Maybe it was an archaic word that was brought back into use, like the verb
tlhogh. Or maybe it was originally an esoteric scientific word having to do with photon energies or something. Maybe it's a borrowing from another language. Only Maltz knows for sure.