Klingon ship name translation

[IceGiant]

Would anyone be able to convert the name "Grim Reaper" into klingon for me?

I've converted the K-27 escort from the FASA recognition manual but was looking for the ship's name in klingon.

Thanks

[Owen E Oulton]

Well, the Grim Reaper is, in western mythology, a personification of death as collector of the souls of the damned. Sounds like the Klingon Fek'lhr (veqlargh), the Guardian of Grethor (ghe''or), the place in the Netherworld where the dishonoured dead are sent.

I can just see the original conversation.
Trip: "What's a... feck-lar?"
T'Pol: "It is a Klingon deity, believed to imprison the souls of the dishonoured when they die."
Trip: "Sorta like the Grim Reaper, huh?"
T'Pol: "The resemblance is slight at best..."
But you know Commander Tucker.

(BTW, I haven't forgotten the Loknar project - just very, very busy the past while...)

[IceGiant]

No worries Owen.

Oh and thank you, Fehk'lhr was obvious. Doh!!

[Owen E Oulton]

Always happy to state the obvious.

[Identity Crisis]

Oddly enough, I'm using Fek'lhr as the Klingon name for the D-9 'Devil' class from the LUG TOS Core Book.

FASA gives the Klingon name of the K-27 as "mortum hesta" which doesn't sound much like Klingon as we now know it. The literal translation is given as "the maker of the dead", which I'm sure can be translated into Okrand-style Klingon.

[Owen E Oulton]

"Mortum hesta?" Bad pseudo-Latin is more Romulan than Klingon, I would think.

I can't find a word for "make" or "maker" in TKD.

Some possibilities for nifty Klingon ship names are:

be'HoHwI' - Female Killer
be'nalHegh - Death's Wife
be'nalveqlargh - Fek'lhr's Wife
batlhqemwI' - Bringer of Honour
BortaS - Revenge or Vengeance (as John Ford's "Battlecruiser Vengeance")
BortaSno' - Ancestors' Vengeance
DaSpu'Hegh - Boot-spike of Death
Heghlaw' - Many Deaths
Heghlay' - Death's Promise
HeghqemwI' - Deathbringer
HeghqIj - Black Death
HoHwI' - Killer
ghoghHegh - Voice of Death
ghoghHeghmoH - Fatal Voice
ghoghHoHwI' - Voice Which Kills
jachbatlh - Scream of Honour
jachHegh - Scream of Death
jachHeghmoH - Fatal Scream
jachHoHwI' - Scream Which Kills
(Put the Klingon Dictionary down and step away from the computer...)

[Trinity Zeldis]

tlhonHegh = Deaths Scattered All Over the Place

[Owen E Oulton]

Excuse me?

tlhon means nostril.

"Nostril-Death?" Not a really impressive name for a ship...

[Doug Burke]

Originally posted by Owen E Oulton
Excuse me?

tlhon means nostril.

"Nostril-Death?" Not a really impressive name for a ship...

Maybe it's meant as "Nostril of Death" and has its origin in a Klingon warrior with a bad cold...

[Trinity Zeldis]

Sorry. It's been nearly 15 years since I had the dictionary. Tlhonmey is the word I remember most.

Nostrils scattered all over the place. Improper Klingonese, but humorous nontheless.

[Owen E Oulton]

Okay, for those who DON'T have The Klingon Dictionary, TZ is referring to the section on suffixes, where it is pointed out that -Du' is the plural suffix for body parts, and -mey is the plural suffix for anything which is not a body part. It then goes on to say that in poetic usage, the -mey suffix is sometimes used for body parts, resulting in phrases like tlhonmey which technically would mean something like "nostrils scattered all over the place."

But getting back to the Nostrils of Death, let's do a little bit of fun extrapolation, the likes of which would send a certain KLI thlingan Hol po'qoq (so-called Klingon language expert) into a tizzy...

Let's postulate that there is a Klingon demon (not a god, they killed their gods a millennium ago) which makes a snuffling noise just before devouring your soul. You never see it, just hear a noise like someone with a bad case of post-nasal drip and no Kleenex®, hence the name tlhonDu'Hegh, or "Nostrils of Death." Klingon mothers use it as a fairy-tale threat - "If you do not behave honourably, the veqlargh will take you to ghe''or where the tlhonDu'Hegh will devour your soul, and you will never sail with the yo'qIj (Black Fleet) in sto'vo'qor (Sto Vo Kor, where the honoured dead go to fight in never-ending glorious battle)."

thlhonDu'Hegh does not refer to a single entity, but a type. They often will gang up on a deceased warrior, especially a warrior of the Black Fleet who died honourably, since they are singly no match for an honourable Klingon warrior. In this case, they are often referred to as tlhonmeyHegh, or The Many Nostrils of Death (which is more poetic than "nostrils of death all over the place").

Derived from the nonsense above, I've decided that in my game there is a class of small but well-armed ship with a nortoriously faulty life-support air-filter system which tends to harbour a nasty little fungus which infects the nasal passages of its crews, resulting in a copious flow of nasal mucous and the resultant snuffling during battle when the crew are too busy to wipe their streaming noses. Although the ship class has an official name, it is universally known as the tlhonDu'Hegh Class. The class is often used in a swarming tactic, quite naturally called the tlhonmeyHegh. The Federation, following the common pattern of tagging an alien ship with an English word which most closely approximates the alien pronunciation, has dubbed it the Klondike Class.

Now you see the type of silliness which transpires when I'm up past my bedtime? It's all your fault!

[Trinity Zeldis]

OH MY GOD!!

I just now read this and couldn't stop laughing. That is hilarious.

Just one thing though, what does the suffix -nex mean? After all, tlhinex (or is it tlhineghs?) would have something to do with the planet tlhi. Perhaps it is a type of planet indigenous to the Klingon homeworld? Or perhaps it is a flap of skin on their wrists used to hold mucous?