Klingons have adopted the way most civilized planets in
the galaxy tell time; They have twenty-four hour days. "Zero hours",
means midnight; "twelve hundred hours", means noon; "nineteen hundred
hours" means seven PM, and so on. Klingons pride themself on
punctuality, so it is important to be precise when referring to
time. Though Klingons are some times inaccurate, they are never
approximate. [CK]
Time of Day
javvatlh rep
six hundred hours or six o'clock in the morning
[CK]
wa'maH cha'vatlh rep
twelve hundred hours or noon
[CK] 1
wa'maH Hutvatlh rep
nineteen hundred hours or seven PM
[CK]
pagh rep
zero hours or midnight
[CK]
wa'maH loSvatlh wejmaH rep
fourteen hundred thirty hours or 2:30 pm
[KML] 2
1
I assume that the "cha'maH wa'vatlh rep" given in CK is simply a slip of the tongue.
2
Alan Anderson <caanders@netusa1.net> on the tlhIngan-Hol Mailing List,
Time of Day
jajlo'
dawn (n)
[TKD]
po
morning (n)
[TKD]
pem
daytime (n)
[TKD]
pemjep
midday (n)
[TKD]
pov
afternoon (n)
[TKD]
choS
twilight (n)
[TKD]
ram
night (n)
[TKD]
ramjep
midnight (n)
[TKD]
Although Klingons tell time the way most of the rest of
the galaxy does, the Klingon day really goes from dawn to dawn, rather
than from midnight to midnight. You might think this could cause some
confusion, but it is really comparable to when a Terran says something
like, "thursday night, at three o'clock in the morning". Bearing that
in mind, here are the words for yesterday, today and tomorrow: [CK]
What Day/Year?
cha'Hu'
day before yesterday (n)
[TKD]
wa'Hu'
yesterday (n)
[TKD]
DaHjaj
today (n)
[TKDa]
wa'leS
tomorrow (n)
[TKD]
cha'leS
day after tomorrow (n)
[TKD]
Hu'
days ago (n)
[TKD]
leS
days from now (n)
[TKD]
ben
years ago (n)
[TKD]
nem
years from now (n)
[TKD]
Units of Time
DIS
year (Klingon) (n)
[TKD]
jar
month (Klingon) (n)
[TKD]
Hogh
week (Klingon) (n)
[TKD]
jaj
day (from dawn to dawn) (n)
[TKD]
rep
hour (n)
[TKD]
tup
minute (of time) (n)
[TKD]
lup
second (of time) (n)
[TKD]
General Words about Time
poH
time (v)
[TKD]
poH
period of time (n)
[TKD]
nI'
be long, lengthy (duration) (v)
[TKD]
ngaj
be short (in duration) (v)
[KGT]
What Time is it?
nuq 'oH rep'e'?
What is the hour?
[KML, Alan Anderson, ]
rep HIja'!
Tell me the hour!
[KML, Garrett Michael Hayes, ]
jIHvaD rep yIja'!
Tell the hour to me!
[KML, Alan Anderson, ]
rep yIja'!
Tell the hour!
[KML, Alan Anderson, ]
rep nuq?
What hour?
[KML, David A. Terhune, ]
tlhaq De' HInob.
Give me the chronometer information!
[KML, Will Martin, ]
nuq cha' tlhaq?
What does the chronometer display?
[Markus Persson, ]
In the copyright notice on the SkyBox Trading Cards Marc Okrand has
"translated" to tera' DIS wa'-Hut-Hut-loS. This
gives a pattern for writing years, which could be useful for other
large numbers or series of numbers as well (such as telephone
numbers). To say tera' DIS wa'-Hut-Hut-vagh is simply shorter
than tera' DIS wa'SaD Hutvatlh HutmaH vagh and therefore feels
closer related to Klingon way of expressing things.
As for names of the months, we have none. Alan Anderson
<caanders@netusa1.net> suggests in a mail to the mailinglist () that one should apply the same pattern as for years above,
thus saying tera' jar vagh for the Terran month May,
whether this leaves us with tera' jar wa'maH cha' or tera'
jar wa'-cha' for December he does not say. Either one is
however fully understandable and in my opinion it becomes only a
matter of preference.
If you want to know more about how to tell time in Klingon, you may
want to read the articles "Maltz Online" in HolQeD 8:1
(pp. 7–12) and "matlh juppu' mu'mey" in HolQeD
8:3 (pp. 2–4) written by Marc Okrand. (Both articles are
available in the »Archive of Okrandian
Canon«.)
