[Tlhingan-hol] 'atlhqam [was: Klingon WOTD: butlh (noun)]

[Steven Boozer]

KGT 92:  One way to bring fermentation about is to mix the food with a fungus (known as {'atlhqam}) usually scraped off the bottom of certain animals' feet, though it also grows on trees.


So, {yav 'atlhqam} to distinguish it from the regular kind that's scraped off the bottom of animals' feet or grows on trees.

--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons

____________________________________________________________
From: Felix Malmenbeck [mailto:felixm at kth.se] :
Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2011 11:17 AM
To: Michael Roney, Jr. PKT
> As long as the mushroom connection has been made, we might as well give
> the whole phrase to help nudge the speculation in the right direction.
>
> mushrooms - tera' yav 'atlhqammey
> (or at least I /think/ the English text is simply "mushrooms"; I'm looking at a
> printout that says "he mau melehune"...)

Ah, I thought 'atlhqam was the whole thing; was reciting from memory.
SaDevHa'pu'mo' jIQoS.
> As far as comparing the other languages, my guess is that it's the most common
> word for "mushrooms" in each language.

I can't access the program right now, but I have an equivalent Mandarin app from EuroTalk on my iPhone, and there the Swedish word is "champinjoner", which refers specifically to the Agaricus genus; the most common word for a common mushroom is "svamp".

I'm guessing that tera' yav 'atlhqammey would refer to any edible Terran ground mushroom, with more detail added if necessary (for instance, Agaricus is the standard mushroom to put on pizzas in much of the world, but if you specifically want black truffles on your pizza, you may call them <"truffle" yav 'atlhqammey qIj> or <waghbogh tera' yav 'atlhqammey 'ej qIjbogh>, and if you want chanterelles you could say <"chanterelle" yav 'atlhqammey> or <SuDbogh tera' yav 'atlhqammey 'ej wovbogh>).
This would make it similar to the English word "mushroom", which can refer either to virtually any aggregation of fungi, but is often used specifically to refer to Agaricus bisporus or "whatever mushroom is customarily eaten in this context".