[90742] in tlhIngan-Hol
Re: [Tlhingan-hol] Eurotalk - New Words - Countries
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Steven Boozer)
Thu Nov 17 11:54:02 2011
From: Steven Boozer <sboozer@uchicago.edu>
To: "tlhingan-hol@kli.org" <tlhingan-hol@kli.org>
Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2011 10:53:46 -0600
In-Reply-To: <CA+7zAmOBhmx4M=Gpf8Qm8zFygzYpD=qWgmJ+Taxm=HfDGeOshw@mail.gmail.com>
Errors-To: tlhingan-hol-bounces@stodi.digitalkingdom.org
Lieven:
>> What I like a lot is the word for china. I had to look it up,
>> and there you see what you can learn from learning Klingon :-)
>> {jungwoq} is the Chinese name for China and means roughly
>> "middle kingdom".
>>=A0
>> I also wonder whether the name was taken from Cantonese, =
>> since there's no final consonant in Mandarin.
De'vID:
> MO did, however, deliberately choose the Cantonese pronunciation
> for China rather than Mandarin. =A0His reason was that if he had
> used Mandarin, the name would have ended in <wo'>, and he didn't
> think Klingons would like to call an Earth country by their word
> for "empire".
Okrand may have used Cantonese before: =
WRT {lung} *loong* "type of lizardlike animal": "Perhaps a pun on the Chin=
ese word for dragon? In Mandarin, the word is Romanized as *lung* (Wade-Gil=
es) or *long* (pinyin), and takes the second tone. In Cantonese, it's usual=
ly Romanized as *lung* (fourth tone), although it's also the *loon* in Kowl=
oon." (Stephen Carter)
WRT {yan} "sword": In Cantonese, *yahn* means "edge of a sword" (lay'tel S=
Ivten)
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons
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