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

[lojmIttI'wI'nuv]

You are doing impressively well. Just offering style pointers here, mostly.


pItlh
lojmIt tI'wI'nuv



> On Mar 21, 2016, at 1:33 PM, mayql qunenoS <mihkoun at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 'utchugh 'oH vaj QuQ yItujqu'choHmoH ! jISaHbe' ! romuluSngan wIjuSnIS !
> if it is necessary then overheat the engine ! I don't care ! we need
> to pass the romulans !

Klingons don’t tend to use pronouns where they aren’t really needed. It’s not wrong to use them, but it’s like putting a plural suffix on a noun that has a number in front of it. We don’t tend to say, {wej Dujmey}. We just say {wej Duj}. You know it’s plural because of the number. So, we similarly don’t tend to say {‘utchugh ‘oH}. We just say {‘utchugh}. We already know that the subject is “he/she/it/they”, and is it really that important to know that it’s singular and doesn’t use language? If identity is important, we’d use actual nouns instead of pronouns.

Actually, I’d probably be a bit more terse:

QuQ Datujqu’nISmoHchugh jISaHbe’! romuluSngan DIjuSnIS!

> maSutlhta'DI', toQDujDaq QuQ chu''e' wIjomta'bogh wIHevlaH.
> when we finished negotiating, we were able to receive the new engine
> which we installed at our bird of prey.

There is a moment. This sentence is set in that moment. At that moment, you had accomplished negotiations. At that moment, you changed status to being able to receive the engine. But at that moment, had you accomplished installing it in your bird of prey? I don’t think so. If so, it was a very, very LOOOONG moment. {-DI’} acts like a time stamp for the main clause. It tells you when the main verb happened.

As written, it sounds like you somehow accomplished installing the engine before you received it.

maSutlhta’DI’, toQDujvaD QuQ chu’ wIjombogh wIHevchoHlaH.

Note that you don’t need {-‘e’} when the head noun of a relative clause is obvious. You have an explicit object noun. The subject is implied in the verb prefix, so there is only one noun there that could be the head noun of the relative clause. Don’t mark it with {-‘e’}, unless you are trying to say something strange, like “When we succeeded at negotiation, we were able to receive the ENGINE which we installed in our bird of prey."

Also, consider {-vaD} instead of {-Daq}. It’s not so important that the engine is installed at the ship’s location. It’s installed FOR the ship. The ship is the beneficiary of the installation.

> QuQchaj boQaw'DI' neH, bochungHa'moHlaH.
> only when you destroy their engine, will you be able to make them decelerate.

I read that as “When you merely destroy their engine,” rather than “exclusively when you destroy their engine”. To get your meaning, I would have said:

bochungHa’moHmeH QuQchaj boQaw’nIS.

This could also become an order, with a simple change of prefix.

> QuQ novDaq Hujbogh Degh law' lutu'lu'. pagh bIH So'Ha'laH.
> at that alien engine there are many strange symbols. no one is able to
> decrypt them.

{pagh} is misplaced. It’s apparently the subject. Why is it before the object?

{So’Ha’} is an odd choice for “decrypt”. I know {So’} can be used for “encrypt”, but it also means “hide”, and you can hide or encrypt a symbol. {meS} also means “encrypt”, and if you are considering symbols, “knot” makes less sense than “encrypt”, so {meSHa’} would probably be less frequently misunderstood. Or simply use {mugh}. Alien symbols aren’t really encryption. They are simply not understood by those who don’t speak the language.

> ghobvIpbogh nuch SoHchugh vaj DuQaHbogh QuQ tu'lu'be'.
> if you are a coward who is afraid to fight, then no engine is able to help you.
> 
> tlhIngan Hol luSo'Ha'meH boQwI' QuQ luchenmoHta' tera'ngan.
> in order to decrypt the klingon language, terans built the boQwI' engine.

Klingon is a language, not a code. One does not decrypt Klingon. One translates it. Treating it like a code creates badly written Klingon, and Klingon makes for a really bad code, since, like any language, back-translation often does not yield exactly the same sentence as the original.

> mayqel mIv Hurgh qunnoq
> I refuse to eat qagh ! I'd rather eat some octopus..
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, Mar 21, 2016 at 4:29 PM, Steven Boozer <sboozer at uchicago.edu> wrote:
>>> Klingon Word of the Day for Monday, March 21, 2016
>>> 
>>> Klingon word: QuQ
>>> Part of speech: noun
>>> Definition: engine
>>> Source: TKD
>> 
>>  tujqu'choH QuQ
>>  The engine is overheating. TKD/CK
>> 
>>  baHwI', DoS yIbuS. QuQ neH.  yaj'a'?
>>  Gunner: Target engine only - Understood? ST3
>> 
>> TKD 78:  Sometimes one member of a set may be partially analyzed. For example, {jonta'} "engine" begins with {jon}, which is also found in {jonwI'} "engineer", and ends with {ta'}, which also occurs in {mIqta'} "machinery". The other members of these synonym sets, {QuQ} "engine" and {jo'} "machinery", cannot be further analyzed.
>> 
>> N.B. {jonta'} "engine" is a synonym.  How it differs from {QuQ} is unclear.  E.g.
>> 
>>  matHa', DoS jonta' neH
>>  Gunner: target engine only. ST3
>> 
>>  jonta' neH
>>  only the engine TKD
>> 
>> SEE ALSO:
>> 
>> jan             device (n)
>> jo'             machinery, mechanism (n)
>> mIqta'  machinery (n)
>> nguSDI'         motor (n)
>> 
>> 
>> "Engines are for mechanics and menials." (Elaan to Scott, TOS "Elaan of Troyius")
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> Voragh
>> tlhIngan ghantoH pIn'a'
>> Ca'Non Master of the Klingons
>> 
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