[Tlhingan-hol] Klingon Bird-of-Prey Haynes Manual

[Steven Boozer]

De'vID:
>> I think there are three named weapons whose names are
>> noun-noun constructions using known words.
>>
>> These are:
>> *{pach peng}   Talon's Strike (torpedo)
>> *{moratlh ro'} Morath's Fist (torpedo)
>> *{notqa' pach} Eagle's Claw (mine)

jaSwa':
> I always thought a {notqa'} was more like a raven.

All we really know about the {notqa'} is that it's:

  "a large, black bird (nowhere near as large as a
  {qa'rol}, which is really big)" [HolQeD 10.4:4]

The obvious pun is "never again", i.e. "nevermore"!  I believe that it was used in Tremail-Naik's (Massimiliano Benini) translation of "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe at http://web.archive.org/web/20080116143733/http://www.cs.unibo.it/~mbenini/ although this link is now dead.  (Does anyone know if Benini has posted this elsewhere on the Web?)

I see no problem with the {notqa'} being a type of large, black {toQ}:

Bill Willmerdinger asked Okrand about {toQDuj} at BabelCon 2 (April 1997):

  According to Marc, a toQ is an avian predator on the
  Homeworld whose closest Terran analog would be a bird
  of prey ... an animal from {Qo'noS} ... a Klingon
  avian analogous to a Terran bird of prey. {toQ} does
  not literally mean "bird of prey", it's merely one
  type of creature which exhibits characteristics similar
  to that grouping of Terran birds.

I compiled a quick list of known birds {bo'Deghmey}:  borghel, cha'bIp, cha'Do', cha'naS, cha'par, cha'qu', *cherwItlh, Da'nal, Da'vI', lIr, lotlhmoq, notqa', parbIng, qanraD, qaryoq, qaryoq'a', qa'rol, ramjep, toQ, vem'eq, vIlInHoD, yatqap and possibly {qISa'ruj}.  I wouldn't be surprised to find that a few of these were birds of prey as well.


--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons