TL;DR: one new word {valqe'} "bat (animal)" Hello my friends, today is the 50-anniversary of a German children sho named "Die Sendung mit der Maus" (i.e. "the show with the mouse"). The topic of this episode was a view into the future, so it was obvious to make a Klingon introduction, of which I am very proud to provide it to them. You can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRgryUjxWes --------------------------------------------- Not only the TV show, also the podcast version of the entire week needed Klingon introductions, and those caused some problems which were answered by Maltz as follows: Quoted lines are my questions, lines starting with >>> are Okrand's words. ---------------------------------------------
leap year - A year in which February has 29 days. 2020 was a "leap year".
Make use of the phrase {bur DIS}, as in, for example {qatlh bur 'op DISmey?}
bat - small animal that can fly but is not a bird, looks quite creepy and can see in the dark due to his sonar voice; sleeps hanging upside down, usually found in caves.
The closest Qo'noS equivalent is a flying beast called a {valqe'}. You can decide whether you want to say {tera' valqe'} for purposes of the TV show.
hibernate, overwinter - what many animals do during the winter; a bear can hibernate. Also the bats we talk above. They hide in caves and sleep there for a very long time. [Added information: with bats, and where they overwinter, (so the word is more about "winter" than "sleep")]
Maltz didn't know of any special way to say "overwinter." He said to just say something like {qaStaHvIS qImroq bIrqu', nuqDaq Qong valqe'mey?} if that covers what they're driving at.
material - There is the word {Hap} "matter" that appears in many materials (e.g. {Sor Hap} "wood"), but can it be used as "material"? Can I say {Hapmey} for "several materials"?
{Hap} (without {-mey}) should work.
the future - When I say a phrase like "In the future, nobody will be poor", may I add {-Daq} to {tuch}? {tuchDaq mamIp}?? Or must it be something like {qaSDI' tuch}?
{qaSDI' tuch} should work.
Can I say {to'waQ wIyIv} for "chewing gum"?
There is an idiomatic expression {to'waQ yIv} that means to take some time to consider a matter, but its meaning comes from the fact that {to'waQ} takes a relatively long time to chew (before swallowing), compared to other things you might be chewing, like muscle. It does not follow from this that Klingons chew {to'waQ} for pleasure, just because the flavor lingers longer or because it works off nervous energy. Maybe {req} would be better than {to'waQ} since, if you were to chew {req}, you'd probably be doing it just for the purpose of chewing (and whatever pleasure or benefit that may bring in and of itself), unlike {to'waQ}, which you'd be chewing for the purpose of grinding it up so you could finally swallow it.
------------------------------------- This will be archived at https://qephom.de/e/message_from_maltz.html -- Lieven L. Litaer aka the "Klingon Teacher from Germany" http://www.tlhInganHol.com http://klingon.wiki/En/DieSendungMitDerMaus