[Tlhingan-hol] Eurotalk - New Words - Countries

[Felix Malmenbeck]

>> WRT {yan} "sword":  In Cantonese, *yahn* means "edge of a sword" (lay'tel SIvten)
>
> I hadn't heard that this was supposed to be a pun.  I wouldn't have thought of it if someone hadn't told me (i.e., unlike "dragon", which is immediately 
> obvious if you say the Klingon word to a Cantonese speaker).  Yes, it sounds like a word in Cantonese, but it's not a common enough word that I'd
> expect someone to know it if they didn't speak the language (the exception is if they learned Cantonese through association with martial arts, and 
> know the names of weapons and weapon parts).
> http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%88%83

I believe we first saw the word «yan» in KGT, which came out about a year after we saw the episode DS9: "Apocalypse Rising", where we learn of the Yan-Isleth: The Brotherhood of the Sword.
Could Okrand have based the word on this?