From: Marc Okrand
Newsgroups: msn.onstage.startrek.expert.okrand
Date: Monday, September 01, 1997 03:15 PM
Subject: Re: Casual?
Neal Schermerhorn
(1) Klingons do not make smalltalk. Therefore there is no word for Hello.
If a Klingon approaches you and does not immediately state his business,
you would greet him with nuqneH - that means What do you want? (Some use
this as an all-purpose greeting - but I personally don't think it's meant
to be that.) Sometimes Qapla' (Success!) is used as a salutation or as a
greeting on rare occasion. But these are all really utilitarian language -
if a Klingon did not really wish success on the other party, he most
assuredly would not say Qapla'.
There's a bit more about all of this in the new book "Klingon For the
Galactic Traveler" (pages 184-185), but I (and what it says in the book)
agree with what Neal wrote.
It is not infrequent to hear nonnative speakers of Klingon use
"what do you want?" as if it meant "hello" or the like in exchanges such
as:
Speaker #1: nuqneH
Speaker #2: nuqneH
No one steeped in Klingon culture would do this, however (except in some
sort of a joking context, perhaps). To begin a conversation, just start!
Or approach someone and wait for him/her to say
person doesn't say anything, you probably don't want to talk to him/her
anyway.
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