You might also just consider {Hergh}. Sometimes, you don’t need to be as specific in your translation as in the original, unless there’s a reason that the specificity is important. Basically, if a Klingon wanted to say what you are saying, would he care about the physical features that the medicine has as an ointment as contrasted to some other form of medicine? Is the spreading on skin or the sensations of spreading it or any of the other features of the substance more important than the medicinal features?

On Nov 4, 2021, at 3:58 PM, nIqolay Q <niqolay0@gmail.com> wrote:

 taS "solution" was used to translate "suntan lotion" as DIr QanwI' taS for TalkNow!, so I tend to think of taS when describing various topical liquids, goops, and the like. You could try variations like Hergh taS 'Ir "creamy medicinal solution", 'oy'Ha'moHmeH taS jeD "viscous solution for soothing" (that is, "for making something un-hurt"), or the like.

...

On Thu, Nov 4, 2021 at 11:25 AM SuStel <sustel@trimboli.name> wrote: On 11/4/2021 11:00 AM, mayqel qunen'oS wrote:

...

I'm inclined to start using {Hergh qulcher}. Odd. The KLI's New Words List doesn't list qulcher cream separately from nIm qulcher taD ice cream.

In English, cream by itself might be assumed to be a kind of food, or it might refer to any substance of that texture. It really depends on how it's used.

In Klingon, we also have the word 'Ir be creamy, pasty, which has the note "in the sense of toothpaste. Describes smooth, thick liquids or liquid-like things." So the substance you want can definitely be described as 'Ir, and in a pinch you could describe it as 'IrwI' creamy thing, pasty thing.

Since the Klingon describes ice cream specifically as nIm qulcher taD frozen milk ??????, and since 'Ir and qulcher were given to us in the same qep'a', I am inclined to believe that qulcher can refer to any substance with a creamy, pasty texture, not just dairy-based cream. If this is correct, then an unguent is a kind of qulcher.

Then there's the pun: the word qulcher sounds like culture, which is what you use to grow things like bacteria. A yogurt culture is the bacteria used to make yogurt, and yogurt is creamy, but you usually don't call yogurt cream.

-- SuStel http://trimboli.name _______________________________________________ tlhIngan-Hol mailing list tlhIngan-Hol@lists.kli.org http://lists.kli.org/listinfo.cgi/tlhingan-hol-kli.org

---

tlhIngan-Hol mailing list tlhIngan-Hol@lists.kli.org http://lists.kli.org/listinfo.cgi/tlhingan-hol-kli.org

Man, that’s familiar. My wife, who is “better read” than me and probably has a wider vocabulary than I do often says things like, “Could you get me the thing from the place under the stuff in the closet?” to which I start off by asking which closet, what stuff, and what thing? But in this case with the word “unguent", I got no context. Just that the word he was looking for was “unguent”, followed by a word search for something in the vocabulary which would plug in to replace that word. The first idea I had was to suggest that instead of searching for a word that might not be there, describe the thing you need to express. Then, as I read more of what he wrote, I wondered about the context. Either of two cases might exist: 1. Context makes it obvious that “medicine” would come in the form of ointment. In that case the word “medicine” would be enough. 2. Within the context of the English expression, maybe “unguent” was remarkably more specific than it needed to be. In that case, the word “medicine” would be enough. So, seeing two different cases where “medicine” might be enough, I thought it might be worth mentioning the option. I wasn’t saying that I know that “medicine” is enough. I obviously don’t know the context. He does. So I honestly wanted to know if the context might be satisfied by the word “medicine” potentially two different ways. I was trying to be concise (not my superpower). If, indeed, the word “medicine” is not specific enough for the expression, and more specificity as to the type of medicine really is important here, then all he has to do is provide a little context and I’d probably go back to “Since we don’t seem to have a single word that says what you need to say, instead of looking for something like “cream” to drop in to the translation and pretending that that works, you should describe the stuff that you need to convey the original message."

On Nov 4, 2021, at 4:41 PM, SuStel <sustel@trimboli.name> wrote:

On 11/4/2021 4:30 PM, Will Martin wrote:

...

You might also just consider {Hergh}. Sometimes, you don’t need to be as specific in your translation as in the original, unless there’s a reason that the specificity is important. Basically, if a Klingon wanted to say what you are saying, would he care about the physical features that the medicine has as an ointment as contrasted to some other form of medicine? Is the spreading on skin or the sensations of spreading it or any of the other features of the substance more important than the medicinal features?

Why does anyone say anything specific? Because specificity is helpful and sometimes indispensible. I could say "Give me the allergy medicine," but if I want the nose spray instead of the pills, I'm going to say "Give me the allergy nasal spray."

My wife is vague like this all the time. She'll say things like, "Bring me my, uh, medicine," because she's busy doing three other things at the same time and she can't think of the name of it. Does she want her thyroid medicine? Antacid? Acetaminophen? I have to ask what medicine she wants, and she gets annoyed at me for not already knowing what she's talking about and making her stop thinking about what she's doing in order to remember the word for what she wants.

So no, the answer to the question isn't to dodge the question, because sooner or later you're going to need to name the stuff you want. Most likely, you'll want to name it the first time you mention it and only refer to it as "medicine" on subsequent mentions, so you'll still need to know the answer.

-- SuStel http://trimboli.name

_______________________________________________ tlhIngan-Hol mailing list tlhIngan-Hol@lists.kli.org http://lists.kli.org/listinfo.cgi/tlhingan-hol-kli.org

On 11/5/2021 9:17 AM, mayqel qunen'oS wrote:

In Greek we don't use so many words; there's just one word and that's it. As in matter of fact, in order to be sure, I placed in google translate each one of the "unguent/ointment/salve", and even google always provided with that one single word, which we use in Greece.

So, I can't "feel" the difference each one of these words has when it's compared to the other.

The word /unguent/ is currently only used in technical contexts in English so far as I know. It's a word a lot of people don't know. /Salve/ feels like something you say of home or primitive remedies, or of something hot that's applied with a pad. /Ointment/ is more common, but it makes me think of stuff you sprinkle on your scalp, and it implies greasiness or oiliness. /Cream/ and /paste/ are certainly the most likely to be used in English, though /paste/ makes me think of toothpaste, which isn't applied topically. So I wouldn't continue trying to get a feel for the differences between these, because native English speakers aren't likely to have a feel for them either. -- SuStel http://trimboli.name