Ancient Klingon

Ancient Klingon – sometimes referred to as no' Hol (from no' ancestors and Hol language, lit. language of the ancestors) – is a fictional, older version of the Klingon language.

In the fiction, the language appears in old sources; some of its parts are preserved in the form quotes, which are used in ritual contexts.

no' Hol is generally recognised through a characteristic, which is already included in the title of paq'batlh: In modern Klingon (ta' Hol language of the emperor) it should be called batlh paq, which means book of honor. In no' Hol the sequence of words is switched and between them is the typical apostrophe.

Variants

There are two kinds of "ancient Klingon":

1. The one first mentioned in the chapter "ritual language" in Klingon for the Galactic Traveler, which has no similarity to proper Klingon
2. Ancient Klingon as mentioned and used in paq'batlh.

no' Hol - Ancient Klingon

There are very few set phrases that are used in ritualized speech of modern Klingon, but are based on no' Hol. Background for the existence of these phrases is that the authors of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine sometimes made up their own Klingon, which Okrand set straight in his book KGT afterwards.

mova' 'aqI' ruStaq
This is an ancient phrase that goes back to the time of Kahless and Lukara. Orginally, the phrase's meaning is "Today is a good day to die", but today it is used to express the Idea of love in a romantic partnership. (1)

Delaq Do'
This expression literally means "Take your stations" and is only used in a ritual when a new commander takes command of a ship. (2)

paq'batlh - Ancient Klingon

The structure of ancient Klingon has never been explained, but from existing phrases in paq'batlh, it is possible to deduce some patterns. Marc Okrand explained some of these patterns in his message about the Klingon spelling for the name Gorkon.

See separate page about ➞ paq'batlh ancient Klingon