[Tlhingan-hol] Cursing

[mayql qunenoS]

Since this a rather slow couple of days, in regards to the number of
posts that are made, I would like to take this leisurely time, to
babble about some random thoughts of mine.. After all, who wouldn't
like while crusing through an uneventful constellation, engage in
philosophical discussions, at ten forward over a glass of romulan ale
?

Okrand has taken several measures to shy away from a language
containing vulgar or offensive words. However as much as I respect and
admire okrand, I believe that this is an omission on his part. Why ?
Because a language needs to be able to satisfy the everyday needs of
its speakers, and one such need is the need to curse. We're not
vulcans, and we may not be klingons, however as terrans we're
frequently pissed (at least I am) and therefore the need arises to be
able to curse even in klingon.

The counter-argument though is, that klingon does have curses, which
are considered pretty effective ones, for a klingon ; I mean, ok, if
someone told me that my mother has a smooth forehead I would consider
it a "neutral statement", but the same phrase told to a klingon would
have dire consequences.. Be that as it may, I would still like to be
able to curse in klingon, in a similar way, that I do in greek.

Unfortunately though, klingon does not give me the building blocks, in
order to formulate my insults.. Or does it ?

In a previous thread I wrote at my signature :

nga'chuqjaj wovlI'ghach.

As soon as I wrote this however (and pressed send..), I realized that
I was mistaken. I should have removed the {-chuq} and placed {-'egh}
instead. In this way I would have :

nga''eghjaj wovlI'ghach

Which I believe is pretty clear. <may the light go and ... itself>. Of
course though, the argument will come that we do not know whether we
are able to dissociate the {nga'} from the {-chuq}, but anyway, if
you're pissed, then I believe that you can go "poetic" on some words
stretching their meaning to express yourself.

Moving away from the notorious f word, we come across to someone else
who is an essential component of terran curses..

The old nick, the ancient enemy, the serpent of eden etc etc.. How
would I say his name in klingon ? This seemed as an insurmountable
problem, until it occured to me that his name in hebrew actually
translates as "the accuser" or "the adversary" depending on the
gospel. So we could have the klingon equivalents of {pumwI'} and
{ghol} respectively. Now, notice this.. {pumwI'} can not only
translate to <the one who accuses>, but also to <the one who falls>..
A rather strange qoincidence if you ask me. A qoincidence only matched
by another strange qoincidence {DevwI'} = <leader>. In the scriptures
the dev.. is described as the leader of this world. Or we could just
say that this word stems from the word <develop> and leave it at that.

Anyway, whatever the case may be, we now have another weapon in our
cursing arsenal, which could be used in order to wish that someone may
be taken by it, send to it etc etc.

Moving on, no reference to the art of terran cursing, could be ever
considered complete if someone didn't concern himself with the mother
of the one he is cursing. And now that I'm thinking of it, there are
many-many truly wonderful ways to refer to, in klingon, to any part of
the mother's body of the one you're cursing, but because they are
rather vulgar I will stop myself here.

mayqel mIv Hurgh qunnoq
you have not experienced shakespeare until you have read him in the
original klingon