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

[De'vID]

>> qa'

jaSwa':
> I've always taken it to mean basically the same thing. Unless you want to define a ghost as specifically a spirit that manifests in the physical world (and in that case, it will still be a spirit). Klingons use *qa'* similarly to English *spirit*; both as in one's essence and as one's metaphysical consciousness. To me, that means *ghost* isn't much of a stretch for *qa'*.

Re: the difference between {qa'} "spirit", {nIyma'} "apparition", and
the concept of "ghost", MO had this to say (MO is speaking and he's
relaying a message from Maltz in the message):

http://kli.org/tlhIngan-Hol/2008/November/msg00003.html
It turns out, {nIyma'} is the Klingon word for "phantom" or
"apparition" -- something that seems to appear, but isn't really
there.  It's not the same as "ghost," which is the spirit of a dead
person (and may or may not look like that person, or may not be
visible at all), and it's not the same as "spirit" (or {qa'}), which
is sort of a life force within a person (that escapes when a person
dies and may exist somewhere somehow).  He said using {qa'} for
"ghost" was OK, but I got the impression there may be another word as
well (though he didn't offer one). He said that although the word
doesn't really mean "invited guest that doesn't show up," it made a
lot of sense to him to use {nIyma'} to refer to such a person.

--
De'vID