[Tlhingan-hol] Klingon Word of the Day: Hey

[Steven Boozer]

> >> Klingon word: Hey
> >> Part of speech: verb
> >> Definition: battle or fight against one's own group (not the supposed
> >> enemy)
> >> Source: Star Trek Into Darkness, qepHom 2013

Voragh:
> >   toH, Hey Humanpu'.  qatlh DISaH?
> >   Why should I care about a human killing humans? (STID)
> >
> > From a mispronunciation of {Hegh} "die" (De'vID, 11/20/2014).

From: mayqel qunenoS :
> why? why? why again the same? why do I keep seeing sentences, which
> make me want to smash my pc against the jay' wall?
> 
> the {qatlh DISaH} means "why should we care about them", right?
> so, why the jay' ghe'tor is the translation given as "why should I care"?
 
Artistic license on Okrand's part.  Like literature, movies are art (more or less), so don't expect a word-for-word literal translation.  Okrand was doing a colloquial translation of the script and he may have thought that "Why should *we* (i.e. any of us) care about them (some dead humans)?" was more dramatic.

There was a similar line in Star Trek III referring to three Federation prisoners on the Genesis Planet.  Kruge ordered his landing party to kill one of them to prove to Kirk that he was serious in his demands:

  wa' yIHoH.  jISaHbe'. 
  Kill one of them. I don't care which. (ST3)

Okrand elaborated a bit in TKD on why he used a no-object prefix:

  jISaHbe' 
  I don't care (which of several courses of action is followed)! (TKD)

He could have written {qatlh vISaH?} "Why do I care (am I concerned about) about them?" or {jISaHbe' [jay']} "I don't give a damn!" but he didn't.  Movie theaters aren't language classrooms;  the point is to entertain an audience, not instruct students.


--
Voragh
tlhIngan ghantoH pIn'a'
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons