From: Marc Okrand Newsgroups: startrek.klingon Date: Tue, 20 Oct 1998 23:25:53 -0400 Subject: Re: The spelling of the name of a weapon and the Klingon alphbet. The various contributors to this thread have pretty much said all there is to say about /betleH/ and its various Federation spellings (bat'telh, bat'leth). But I'll add a little anyway. >From the point of view of the Klingon language, the word is /betleH/. This is not an official "spelling" (the only official spelling would be in Klingon characters); it's just a standardized transcription of spoken Klingon that tells the reader how to pronounce the word (or at least gives a close approximation). When the word was originally written down by Federation scouts (or whoever the first Federation folks were who tried to write it down), the details of the Klingon language were unknown and there were undoubtedly some mishearings and/or mistranscriptions. Some early transcriber(s) apparently wrote "bat'telh" while another (or others) wrote "bat'leth." The first may have been a mishearing of (or been influenced by) Klingon /batlh 'etlh/, literally "sword of honor," while the second may have been an attempt to write /betleH/, with its decidedly non-Federation Standard final consonant. The spelling "bat'telh" apparently got passed around a lot and became a common way to write the word. Since almost no one in the Federation, at that time, had heard the word spoken by a Klingon, they would have no way to know whether "bat'telh" was the best choice. For some reason, later on, the alternate spelling, "bat'leth," came to be used more frequently than "bat'telh" and eventually it came to be the accepted one for use in the Federation. As a result of the spelling "bat'leth," many non-Klingons call the weapon by a name that resembles that spelling (they say "BAT-leth") rather than by something closer to the actual Klingon /betleH/. This (sort of) parallels referring to the Russian capital as Moscow in English rather than using the Russian pronunciation "moskva." The point is that "Moscow" is an acceptable English way to pronounce the name of the city, but it's not the Russian way. Similarly, "bat'leth" is an acceptable Federation Standard way to pronounce the name of the weapon, but it's not the Klingon way. [The "real" story, of course, is a little different. The first time the word ever comes up in Star Trek, as far as I know, is in the Next Generation episode "Reunion." In that script (and others), it is spelled "bat'telh," so that is where that spelling in Star Trek books and so forth comes from. When the word is actually pronounced in the episode, however, Worf says something more like "BAT-leH" (where "H" is a harsh sound similar to the "ch" in German "Bach"), and eventually scripts started spelling the word "bat'leth," which seems a fusion of the original spelling and the pronunciation. Similarly, publications about Star Trek used the "bat'telh" spelling for a while, but now everyone seems to have switched over to "bat'leth."] David Trimboli wrote: >TPO wrote: >>bat'leth is the screwed up Federation way. > >Oh no, no, no. "Bat'telh" is the screwed up Federation way. The only >"official" source I've seen spell it "bat'leth" is Marc Okrand, who >obviously got tired of pretending that "bat'telh" came even close to >being correct. > >Myself, I always use {betleH}. > >SuStel =========================================================================== From: Marc Okrand Newsgroups: startrek.klingon Date: Tue, 20 Oct 1998 23:26:00 -0400 Subject: Re: Just curious... Though there is no question that medical services are sometimes necessary, Klingons have a feeling of uneasiness when it comes to anything associated with medicine. Furthermore, to a Klingon, finding oneself in need of the care of a doctor is often considered a disgraceful state of affairs. Nevertheless, Klingon doctors do exist, as do various sorts of aides, but the division of labor in Klingon hospitals, sick bays, and the like is not quite parallel to that in the Federation. As a result, the vocabulary associated with medical practitioners is not quite parallel to its Federation counterpart. The general word for "doctor" or "physician" is /Qel/. A doctor who performs surgery is a /HaqwI'/ "surgeon." The two terms are not mutually exclusive; that is, the same individual may be referred to as both a /Qel/ and a /HaqwI'/. It is reasonable to say /HaqwI' po' ghaH Qel'e'/ "the doctor is a skilled surgeon" (/po'/ "be skilled," /ghaH/ "he/she," /-'e'/ topic suffix). There is no single term for "nurse," as distinguished from "physician's assistant." Voragh's suggestions (/Qel boQ/ "doctor's aide," /HaqwI' boQ/ "surgeon's aide") are fine and both could be used. Qov's suggestion, /QelHom/, consisting of /Qel/ "doctor" plus the diminutive suffix /-Hom/, is also an acceptable form (and is an excellent illustration of the diminutive suffix -- the word means "not quite a doctor" or "lesser doctor" or the like). Another word sometimes applied to the person a Federation patient might refer to as a "nurse" is /rachwI'/. The verb /rach/ has been translated variously as "invigorate," "fortify," and "strengthen." Thus /rachwI'/ (/rach/ plus the suffix /-wI'/ "one who does") is an "invigorator, fortifier, strengthener." When used in reference to a person, the verb /rach/ suggests an improvement in health; when used in reference to an inanimate object, say, a mechanical device or the hull of a ship, /rach/ also implies improvement or betterment. /rach/ is to be distinguished from /tI'/ "repair" in two ways: (1) /tI'/ is generally not applied to living beings; (2) /tI'/ suggests restoration to a previous state, not necessarily improvement. /rach/ is also to be distinguished from /Dub/ "improve," which seems to be used primarily when what is being enhanced is of a more abstract nature (as when one improves or increases one's status, skill, understanding, etc.). [[eof]]