[Tlhingan-hol] Klingon Word of the Day: nItlh naQ

[Gaerfindel]

ghItlh QeS 'utlh. jang:
The *original* meaning of {ghItlh} may have been "to carve, to 
inscribe", but it's come to have a much wider sense of "write, inscribe" 
that's not restricted to carving of marks on a hard surface. I quote 
from KGT:

"The word {ghItlhwI'} (literally, "engraver") is also used for any 
writing implement as well as for any person who writes. Indeed, the verb 
{ghItlh} is most commonly translated as "write", but it always refers to 
the act of writing - that is, of making marks on some surface - not to 
the act of composition." (KGT pp. 79-80) So {ghItlh} can describe the 
inscribing of the Book of Kells just fine.

jIjang:
Of course.  But since we're talking about a book that is considered 
*the* height of medieval calligraphy, I would use {DIj} alone.  I see 
the /Book/ as a work of *visual* art, of artistic creation, not a work 
of writing alone.  Personal preference, perhaps.

~quljIb
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