From: "Marc Okrand" Newsgroups: startrek.klingon Date: Tue, 5 May 1998 23:33:15 -0400 Subject: Re: muqaD veS!!!!!!! Qermaq wrote in message <6i68bl$ku711@picard.paramount.com>... > qagh DaSoptaHvIS *fork* Dalo'! I'll avoid entering into this bout of {mu'qaD veS} "curse warfare" even though it's a grand Klingon tradition. I will, however, add a little bit to Qermaq's terrific example of the art. The Klingon word for "fork" is {puq chonnaQ}. As is well known, Klingons prefer to get food into their mouths without the aid of implements (except for such things as the bowl containing soup or the goblet containing bloodwine). Nevertheless, they have become acquainted with the eating habits of other cultures and have become aware of such things as forks. On occasion, they'll even use the implements, most commonly when partaking of a non-Klingon meal (whether on a Klingon planet or elsewhere) but sometimes when eating Klingon food, as if to add an exotic touch to the meal experience. (Not all Klingons are skilled in using forks, however, and some simply refuse to deal with them. Those who do not use them seem to be not at all troubled by eating "foreign" food using Klingon means -- that is, hands.) The term {puq chonnaQ} is, at least in origin, somewhat derisive. It literally means "child's hunting spear," suggesting that the eating implement is small and not very effective (though the actual child's spear, as opposed to the "fork," is useful for training in the art of hunting). The Klingon word for "spoon" is {baghneQ}. Even though spoons were never typically used when eating, the word appears to have been in the language for a long time, suggesting that it may once have meant something else. One theory is that it comes from {nagh beQ} "flat stone, flat rock" and that the initial sounds of the two words, {n} and {b}, were, for some reason, transposed. This is, however, just speculation. =========================================================================== From: Marc Okrand Newsgroups: startrek.expertforum Date: Tue, 5 May 1998 Subject: Re: New Klingon Language Lab Disks >Does Marc Okrund have any plans to update the Klingon Language Lab to >include conversational Klingon? >I've got his CD as part of the Simon & Schuster Star Trek Omnipedia gift >set, and it's dynamite for learning words and short phrases but would be >better if expanded to provide instruction on holding a conversation. >I might add that everyone who tries the CD when they visit wants one. I'm glad you (and your friends) are enjoying the Klingon CD. And thanks to others who responded (more quickly than I!) to this posting and listed the various books and tapes available. Having said that, I'm not sure which CD you've got! There are (to the best of my knowledge) two or three Klingon language CDs, depending on how you count: Disk 3 of the three-disk CD-ROM set "Star Trek: Klingon" contains the Klingon Language Lab (CD-ROM) and also a portion of "Power Klingon" (which can be played as a regular audio CD), available in its full form on audiocassette. (So this can count as either one or two CDs.) There is also a CD version of "Conversational Klingon" (originally produced as an audiocassette) that was distributed in the "Emissary Gift Set" several years ago. I don't know if it's available separately. This gift set also contained the Next Generation "Interactive Technical Manual" (CD-ROM), a preview version of the CD-ROM game "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Harbinger," and a videotape of the pilot episode of DS9, "Emissary." If there was a Klingon language CD of some kind included in the Omnipedia gift set, I don't know what it was, though I'd love to find out! As for additional CDs -- as of now, I've got nothing in the works, but as long as there are people interested in learning more Klingon..... [[eof]]