[Tlhingan-hol] Klingon Word of the Day: beH

[ghunchu'wI' 'utlh]

On Sun, Oct 30, 2011 at 11:10 AM, Josh Badgley <joshbadgley at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Out of curiosity, I noticed that we find the word beH in such compound
> nounds as nISwI' beH and pu' beH.  Does this mean that "beH" by itself means
> "rifle" in the sense of "flintlock"?  Like the kind the Klingons were arming
> the Neuralese with?

If the word "rifle" is intended to have its original definition, the
first flintlocks seen in the episode were not rifles. The "upgrades"
delivered by the Klingon (identified in the credits as "Krell") were.

However, I doubt that the word {beH} is strictly limited to firearms
with a long barrel having helical grooves intended to cause a bullet
to spin as it is fired. That wouldn't be at all appropriate for a
{nISwI' beH}. I'm going to go along with Felix's suggestion of the
distinction being a shoulder-braced weapon as opposed to a handheld
one.

-- ghunchu'wI'