[94401] in tlhIngan-Hol
Re: [Tlhingan-hol] Klingon Word of the Day: tlhorgh
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Steven Boozer)
Wed Aug 15 10:31:55 2012
From: Steven Boozer <sboozer@uchicago.edu>
To: "tlhingan-hol@kli.org" <tlhingan-hol@kli.org>
Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2012 14:31:43 +0000
In-Reply-To: <979287c4d5547a7df4d77bc0ababe3c2@localhost.localdomain>
Errors-To: tlhingan-hol-bounces@stodi.digitalkingdom.org
> Klingon word: tlhorgh
> Part of speech: verb
> Definition: be pungent (referring to food)
KGT 85: To the Klingon palate, the best food tastes {tlhorgh} ("pungent", though some non-Klingons may prefer to translate the word as "rank" or "gamey"). The opposite of {tlhorgh} is {tlhorghHa'}, conventionally translated as "bland" but literally meaning "unpungent", the implication being that the natural punch has somehow been taken out of the food as a result of how it was prepared. The same ideas are often expressed idiomatically. When talking about the quality of a dish, one may say {jej pach} ("The claw is sharp"; that is, the food is pungent) or {jejHa' pach} ("The claw is dull"; in other words, the food is bland, where {jejHa'} ["dull"] really means something like "de-sharpened").
KGT 42: the normal way to describe bland food is to call it {tlhorghHa'} ("not pungent"). In the past, the word {jot} was used in this sense, though now its meaning has changed to "be calm". An upper-class diner will, from time to time, still describe food as {jot}. [...] Among the lower classes-except for those working as servants for the higher classes ... words like {jot} and {ru'} are used only in their modern senses.
KGT 85-86: The usual Federation Standard translations of the primary tastes (pungent, sour, salty) are a little deceptive. From the Klingon point of view, it is not accurate to say that a particular food is sour; rather, it tastes and smells sour. That is, sourness is not an intrinsic quality of the food; it is a perception, the effect the food has upon the senses of smell and taste, the Klingon sense of smell being particularly highly developed. Translations such as "sour-inducing" ({Soj wIb}, "sour-inducing food"; {na' Soj}, "The food induces saltiness") would perhaps be closer to the feeling of the Klingon, but they are a bit clumsy.
Related verbs:
tlhorghHa' be bland (referring to food)
non be rotten
ngIm be putrid
rogh ferment
ragh decay
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons
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