[Tlhingan-hol] Maltz about honorific ranks

[Lieven]

 From Marc Okrand, to the qepHom 2014:

Maltz actually had a bit more to add (though he didn't answer all 
questions).  He said he knew something about all of the titles but one. 
  Whether his understanding of them is based on what they really mean 
(or, more correctly, historically meant) or are just "folk etymologies" 
(etymologies made up after the fact that "make sense" to speakers but 
don't really have anything to do with where the words come from) is not 
clear. He didn't provide any infor-mation on how these titles are used 
or the like, but he said he had heard all of them.  In any case, here's 
what he said:

Sutay was the one honorific he wasn't sure about. He said he'd heard it 
had something to do with readiness or preparedness, as reflected in Su' 
and SuH, alternate forms of an exclamation meaning Ready! or Standing 
by! But he really didn't know.

veStay is related to veS war, warfare, so it's clearly a fitting 
honorific for a Klingon.

Santay, he said, is related to SanID thousand.  Maltz said that he heard 
that an older form of this honorific was SanIDtay but over time, it was 
shortened. But he also heard that Santay really comes from the Krotmag 
dialect's pronunciation of SaD, an alternate form for thousand, which 
sounds to most non-Krotmag Klingons more like San (though the final 
consonant is not quite an n).  He noted that because of the changes in 
pronunciation, many Klingons aren't aware of the connection to thousand 
and think that the title has something to do with San fate.  Maltz said 
this wasn't correct. Despite all of that, he wasn't sure about the 
significance of thousand. He thought it might just be a high number, 
reflecting a high rank, but the fact that the other honorifics have 
nothing to do with numbers casts doubt on his theory.

'Iptay is related to 'Ip oath (and there's also a verb 'Ip meaning 
swear, vow).  One's honor is at stake when making a vow or swearing an 
oath, so he thought this also was a very appropriate honorific.

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-- 
Lieven L. Litaer
aka Quvar valer 'utlh
http://www.facebook.com/Klingonteacher
http://wiki.qepHom.de