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Hello, and welcome. You’re listening to DaHjaj Hol, your daily dose of Klingon language. I’m your host, Lawrence Schoen.
With the weekend upon us, it seems like a good time to open up Marc Okrand’s excellent tome, Klingon for the Galactic Traveler and select a fresh noun for your enjoyment. Today’s selection is tlhIq. TLH, Capital I, Lowercase Q. tlhIq means stew. Here are a few delicious example sentences for you to savor:
tlhIqDaq nuq Datu’
what did you find in the stew?
SoSwI’ tlhIq luSoplaHbe’ nuchpu’
cowards cannot eat my mother’s stew
charchu’ tlhIq ’ach maghungqu’
the stew is clearly slimy, but we are very hungry
Will you begin using this new word right now, or will you hold off and slip it in during a meal? And what do you think it says about your choice to do one or the other? Are you eager and willing to show off your new vocabulary without delay, or would you feel more comfortable waiting for a more appropriate context? There’s no wrong answer here, as long as you use the word. The important thing is that you practice the language. qo’mey poSmoH Hol
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Tags: Klingon
Somewhat disagree with your use of -chu’ here:
charchu’ = perfectly slimy, ultimately slimy
“clearly slimy” – as in “it’s clear that it’s slimy” – would be either charbej or charba’.
10.22.11 at 5:55 am
And yet, The Klingon Dictionary, 2nd edition, page 40:
-chu’ clearly, perfectly
jIyajchu’ I understand clearly (yaj understand)
-bej denotes certainty, and -ba’ denotes obviousness. I know of no Type 6 verb suffix that suggests “ultimately.”
10.22.11 at 10:42 am
The example on page 40 uses the English word clearly in a very different way from the way you use it:
jIyajchu’ = “I understand clearly” as in “I understand perfectly”; it does not mean “It it clear that I understand”; this is handled by -bej and -ba’.
Other examples include:
naDevvo’ jIleghlaHchu’be’. – I can’t see well from here. [CK]
HoS lI’ Dalo’Ha’chu’! – You are a total waste of good energy! [PK]
“The use of this verb suffix [-chu’] indicates that an action in performed
absolutely properly.” [PK]
‘otlh peng Qeqchu’. – He aims the photon torpedo perfectly. [PK]
tlhIngan tIgh Dapabchu’. – You follow Klingon customs well. [PK]
The list goes on and on, but in all of them, the suffix suggests that something is done to the utmost/perfect degree; the translation “clearly” makes sense when referring to sight or understanding, because to see or to understand something clearly is to see or understand them perfectly.
10.22.11 at 12:09 pm
Hmm… you make some very fine points. And I should concede the usage to you, because your reading of my sample sentence is probably how most people will in fact read it.
However… imagine if you will, a context in which the chef is desperately trying to drive people out of his restaurant and so has been striving to concoct a soup so vile, so disgusting, so slimy that no one will eat it. And lo, he succeeds! The soup is clearly slimy. It is perfectly slimy. Alas, a group of patrons are sooooo hungry, that they eat it anyway…
Now, I’m not saying that was the context for my sample sentence. I’m not saying it, because if I did, no one would believe me, and that’s a pretty good reason for me not to say it. However, I think you will acknowledge that if I had been going for just such a context, my usage would have been fine.
{{{:-)
10.22.11 at 9:43 pm
Point conceded; nothing better than a good retcon 😉
10.23.11 at 12:29 pm