jIH:
Among the various time telling methods, is there a method which is supposed to be used in more formal settings than the rest ? And when I say "formal settings" I mean weddings, court trials, religious texts, etc.
There's something I realized, which perhaps answers this matter. In "'maltz online', HolQeD 8:1, pages 7-12", it says:
In dealing with time in interplanetary communication, Klingons have come to use the 24-hour system favored by the Federation.
And later, during the description of the {'arlogh Qoy'lu'pu'} method, it says in reference to this method:
in a time before Klingons traveled around the galaxy
Given that weddings, court trials (of any kind), and religious texts were probably taking place/were probably written before klingons started travelling in space (I can't believe I'm writing this crap..), then logically, the formal/traditional method seems to be the {'arlogh Qoy'lu'pu'}. The only thing which doesn't seem to fit in all this, is something which I read at: http://klingonska.org/ref/time.html There, it says:
In HolQeD 8:1 (March 1999) two different ways of telling the time were described. The first system, used for interplanetary communication, is exemplified in the following phrases (if the context is clear, the word tera’ Earth may be left out, as in the last example below): tera’ rep wa’ Earth hour one or one o’clock tera’ rep cha’maH Earth hour 20 or 20 o’clock or eight o’clock p.m. tera’ rep loS wejmaH Earth hour 4:30 rep cha’maH 20 o’clock, eight o’clock p.m. The second system is an informal way of answering the question ’arlogh Qoylu’pu’? What time is it? (lit. How many times has it been heard?) In direct response to this question one may even drop the verb, and answer only chorghlogh eight o’clock (lit. eight times). cha’logh Qoylu’pu’ It’s two o’clock chorghlogh Qoylu’pu’ It’s eight o’clock
The problem here is whether the sentence "The second system is an informal way of answering the question {’arlogh Qoylu’pu’?}", was indeed in HQ, and of course whether it was written by 'oqranD himself. Let alone the fact, that according to that sentence, the thing which actually is informal, isn't the question itself, but the "way of answering to it". And the sentence in question doesn't clarify whether the "informal way of answering" concerns only the answers where the verb is dropped (e.g saying just {chorghlogh}), or whether it has to do with the entire {chorghlogh Qoylu’pu’} sentence. Anyways, since I don't have the original HQ, I can't know for sure what's actually going on, but unless there's some other Ca'Non I'm missing, then for the time being I'll accept the {'arlogh Qoylu'pu'} as the formal/traditional method of telling time. ~ Qa'yIn