nIyma'

phantom, apparition

Part of speech

noun

Pronunciation

nɪjmɑʔ

Sound out nIyma' letter by letter:

• nnn as in 'nay'
• Iɪi as in 'bit'
• yjy as in 'yes'
• mmm as in 'moon'
• aɑa as in 'father'
• 'ʔglottal stop, the catch in 'uh-oh'

• It turns out, nIyma' is the Klingon word for phantom or apparition -- something that seems to appear, but isn't really there. It's not the same as ghost, which is the spirit of a dead person (and may or may not look like that person, or may not be visible at all), and it's not the same as spirit (or qa'), which is sort of a life force within a person (that escapes when a person dies and may exist somewhere somehow). He said using qa' for ghost was OK, but I got the impression there may be another word as well (though he didn't offer one). He said that although the word doesn't really mean invited guest that doesn't show up, it made a lot of sense to him to use nIyma' to refer to such a person. [2008-11-23-Email]

2008-11-23-Email

Originally sourced from klingonska.org and enhanced by lingoXpress.