[213] in tlhIngan-Hol
Telling time
dcctdw@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (dcctdw@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Sun Feb 16 19:20:52 1992
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
From: mosquito@Athena.MIT.EDU
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
Date: Sat, 15 Feb 92 01:44:38 -0500
Assuming a 12 hour clock is not necessarily reasonable.
Remember that for "jaj" the dictionary says "from dawn to dawn",
and for "DIS" the dictionary says "year (Klingon)", but that
hour, minute, and second (rep, tup, lup) has no such designation. One might
hypothesize that either Klingons have their own versions of the three, or
that they adopted the federation version (like they did the number system).
In either case, we can't assume they have 24 hours in a day, which they
designate by AM and PM.
Next: If they do count time by hours, my guess is that they count from
dawn (jajlo'), since the dictionary calls "jaj" "from dawn to dawn".
Lots of cultures used to do this. I think Saudi Arabia may still,
though I'm not sure. Certainly, in the New Testament in the Bible,
time is given in terms of "nth hour" after dawn and "nth watch" after
sunset.
Third: Not sure about vo' and Daq as "past" and "to". I think it's unlikely,
given the fact that "days ago", "years ago", "days from now" and "years from
now" have special words that don't have anything to do with "ago", "year",
"day", or any such.
The other assumptions seem more reasonable, ie using "hour" for "o'clock",
using "nine-fifteen" for 9:15, using "half past six" for 6:30, and
distinguishing minutes before and after the half-hour. They're certainly
not universal on Earth, but they sound like they might fit into the Klingon
system.
I've asked about time twice already, and no one had responded to my question,
probably because the dictionary doesn't give a clue about it, and based on
that, so many speculations are possible that they felt it wasn't worth
trying to guess.
\ /
--OO--
!! mosquito@athena.mit.edu
Kevin Iga
