Star Trek® Klingon™ for the Galactic Traveler by Marc Okrand

Author:Marc Okrand
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 1997-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

SIMILES

There are a number of common Klingon expressions similar to such Federation Standard phrases as “stubborn as a mule” or “busy as a bee.” In Klingon, however, such similes, as such rhetorical devices are known, are constructed as if two sentences. The first attributes a quality to someone or something; the second makes use of the verb rur (“resemble”) to link the quality to something that presumably epitomizes the quality. For example, “trivial as a glob fly” would be ram; ghIlab ghew rur (“He/she/it is trivial; he/she/it resembles a glob fly”; ram, “be trivial, insignificant”; ghIlab ghew, “glob fly”).

Some Klingons are rather creative in their use of this construction, making up a new simile on the spot for a given occasion, sometimes coming up with rather poetic images, such as let mInDu’Daj; Separmey rur (“Her eyes are hard; they resemble separ [a type of gemstone]”; let, “be hard”; mInDu’Daj, “his/her eyes”; Separmey, “separs”). This facility is an admirable one, demonstrating the speaker’s wit and mastery of the language. Indeed, several drinking games are built around devising ever more inventive phrases with rur. There are, in addition, a number of set phrases that are used repeatedly and are known by everyone. Most of these have been heard so often that they have become overused—that is, they are clichés. Employing a smattering of clichés in one’s speech is both natural and acceptable, but using too many makes one’s speech less effective and is not at all desirable. To be on the safe side, a visitor should be familiar with the clichés in order to understand what is being said, but at the same time he or she should remember to actually use them only once in a while.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.