[Tlhingan-hol] Klingon Word of the Day: HI'tuy

[De'vID]

Quvar:
> We shouldn't forget that many of those words with {-'a'} and {-Hom} cannot always be translated literally from klingon to english. A {be'Hom} is not an "inferior woman", or a {bIQ'a'} is more than just a big piece of water -

The example that I like, straight from TKD, is {toy'wI'} "servant" and
{toy'wI''a'} "slave" - this illustrates quite clearly that {-'a'} is
not necessarily "positive".

Quvar:
> and shouldn't ocean be ngeng'a'?

Why would ocean be {ngeng'a'}?  A {ngeng} is freshwater and is
surrounded by land.  A {bIQ'a'} is saltwater (well, assuming Qo'noS is
similar to Earth, since it's class M) and surrounds land.  I would
think of an inland sea if I saw {ngeng'a'}.

Quvar:
> When searching for a word for "tyrant", the translator maybe thought something like "Hey, a {HI'} is really not negative, let's make it a {HI''a'} - that might be very close."

So a {HI'} is someone with absolute power over some domain, and a
{HI''a'} is someone with absolute power over everything.  Klingons
refer to Molor as a {HI''a'} because he wasn't merely a dictator, but
controlled all of Qo'noS (except for small areas of resistance).  The
word becomes associated with tyranny, the way English "dictator" is
now associated with some leaders in the WWII period.  When translating
{HI''a'} from Klingon to English, the closest term with the same
associations is "tyrant".

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De'vID