Date: Sat, 25 Dec 2010 16:56:47 +0100
From: Lieven Litaer [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Letter from Maltz

Merry Christmas, tlhIngan Hol ghojwI'pu'!
or whatever you like to celebrate during this time of the year.

As I promised, here is the complete letter from Marc Okrand of November
15th, 2010. Read it carefully, there is one more small but important
word which I have been *hiding*. ;-)

Enjoy,
and have a nice day.

Quvar 'utlh.
http://www.qephom.de

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Lieven --

I showed Maltz the list you sent me after last year's qepHom. He
volunteered a little bit, but, in his typical way, he skipped some things.

There was a question about whether tlhaptIH was a good way to say
"tractor beam." Maltz said he'd never heard that before, but he has
heard luHwI' tIH.

There was another question about whether loDnI'nal and be'nI'nal
could be "brother-in-law" and "sister-in-law." Maltz said he didn't
think there were specific words for these concepts. He said to just
describe the relationship: loDnI' loDnal and be'nI' loDnal for
"brother-in-law" and loDnI' be'nal and be'nI' be'nal for
"sister-in-law." He said you could even say things like be'nal loDnI'
be'nal "wife's brother's wife." But he preferred to call all these
people 'e'nalpu' "people who married into the family."

Then there was a question about "pillow." Someone suggested QongDaqvaD
meyrI' tun ghoDlu'bogh. Maltz first said, as did you, that Klingons
don't have pillows and he wondered why anyone would want one. But he's
seen them (somewhere) and knows what they are. So when pushed -- "If
you have to call it something, what would you call it?" -- he said
ngogh tun. A ngogh is a "block" or "lump" or "brick." He said he's
seen humans eating yuch ngoghmey and found that strange. I'm not sure
what form he'd prefer his yuch to be. While thinking about food, he
added that the word for "bread" is tIr ngogh.

He thought more about it and said maybe another way to say "pillow" was
QongDaq buq "bed pouch," but he said that could also apply to a
sleeping bag. Perhaps a sleeping bag is QongDaq buq'a' and a pillow
is QongDaq buqHom. The word buq could be "bag, sack, pouch" or even
"pocket." When clarity is needed, one could say, for example, yopwaH
buq "pants pouch" or wep buq "coat pouch" for "pants pocket" or "coat
pocket," but when the context is clear, buq alone would suffice for
"pocket."

The word for monastery is ghIn. This is a pretty general term for a
religious community (and the term "religious" could be interpreted in
various ways as well), so it can be modified. A ghIn'a' would be a
pretty important monastery, for example.

Finally, someone last year asked for the word for "picture." At first,
Maltz wondered why nagh beQ wasn't good enough. But then he thought
about it some more and said that another word, mIllogh, could be used
for any sort of depiction, including drawings, photographs, cartoons,
icons on 21st-century computers, and so on.

Have a great qepHom. See you there next year!

- Marc

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