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  Type: newsgroup posting
  Date: 6 July 1998
  Title: Re: Marc Okrand
  Author: Marc Okrand
  Summary: On {yIH ghaghwI'} "one who mates with a tribble".
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From: "Marc Okrand" <mokrand@erols.com>
Newsgroups: startrek.expertforum
Subject: Re: Marc Okrand
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 1998 

ds@gzinc.com wrote ...
>As I specified in my original post, the purpose of getting the phrase
>was to incorporate it into a story I am writing.  I do appreciate the
>response and help, but everything I have gotten so far, while it may
>be correct for conversational Klingon, does not fit the blank space I
>have left in my story for it.
> [snip]
>Klingon insults a federation officer in Klingon. Federation officer
>ignores him. Klingon says to other klingons in Fed standard "He does not [[klingons:=Klingons]]
>even know when he has been insulted."
>Federation officer: "I cannot be insulted by (a) ________________.

Seems to me that the phrase that best fills in the blank ("I cannot be
insulted by (a) _______") is the one suggested a while back by both SuStel
and Qermaq: 

yIH ngaghwI'

(I'd leave the "a" in the English: "I cannot be insulted by a yIH
ngaghwI'.") 

If this is translated as "one who mates with a tribble," perhaps it sounds
too formal or clinical (in English, not in Klingon) to function as a curse
or insult.  If it's translated "tribble mater-wither" or something like
that, it has a somewhat better tone, but it's questionable English and
therefore lacks punch.  But English isn't the issue here; Klingon is, and,
unless I'm missing the point, /yIH ngaghwI'/ should work.  I trust that,
in the story, the Federation officer who utters the phrase is prepared for
what the Klingon may do next. 

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