[Tlhingan-hol] Eurotalk - New Words - First Words

[Steven Boozer]

'anan naHQun:
>> car - puH Duj
>> airplane - muD Duj
>> train - lupwI' mIr
>> ship - bIQ Duj
> 
> In the novel "Left Hand of Destiny"; it's stated that while most
> civilizations make cars -> airplanes -> spaceships; the Klingons
> did not.  The Hur'q invaded before the Klingons invented cars.
> After the Hur'q left; the Klingons aimed for the stars; skipped 
> over cars and went straight to airplanes and then spaceships.
> 
> Cars were invented later.
> 
> So it's perfectly possible that the word for "spaceship" came first
> and then became accepted to refer to "cars" as well...

I vaguely remember Okrand saying somewhere that the Klingons have sea-faring tradition, but I can't find that reference.  The closest I could find is this:

KGT 16:  The Klingon Homeworld {Qo'noS}, usually rendered Kronos in Federation Standard, is a planet with basically one very large mass of land surrounded by ocean; perhaps "continent" is a comparable concept.

In any event, he did speculate briefly on {Duj} and {Do'}:

TKD 20:  The syllable {'ej} also occurs in {'ejyo'} "Starfleet". There are, however, no known Klingon words {'ej}, {Do'}, or {yo'} that have anything to do with Starfleet, starships, the Federation, or space vehicles of any kind. It is quite likely that {Do'} is an Old Klingon word for space vessel (the modern Klingon word is {Duj}) that is used nowhere except in the noun {'ejDo'} ["starship"]. Of course, without further study, that remains pure conjecture.

Hmm... I wonder if {'ej}, {Do'} and {yo'} could be borrowed Hur'q words referring to space travel?  Is it a coincidence that {'ejyo'} refers to another space-related organization of alien species?


--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons