#bajoran language

[section-69]

DS9 companion discusses Bajoran language

[deepspacenightshift]

Night shift workers on Deep Space Nine, unfortunately, hear a lot of insults. Here are the most common ones:

“Fool” is an insult common to all the main cultures on DS9—Bajorans, Humans, Klingons, and Ferengis all feel comfortable labeling people as fools for making mistakes.

“Pavrak!” or “Kheet’agh!” —Not all Bajoran speakers are friendly and calm all the time, and the more xenophobic or just plain mean people like to implicitly tell their insultee that Bajor, and DS9, are Bajoran territory, and if they don’t understand Bajoran they don’t belong there.

“Hom!” —Klingon for “runt” or “weakling”, this one is probably more common in DS9 than in majority-Klingon areas.

“You’re worse than a (animal)” is also popular. Typically it’s “Cardassian vole”, “toothy tube grub”, or “Denebian slime devil”. Those kinds of insults can be quite creative, and you get the feeling that people who use these kinds of insults are more showing off their wit than really holding any animosity towards you.

[motsimages]

Some ideas I have about names, cultures and languages in DS9 based on the names I know so far, by the beginning of season 2, and knowing I only have a general knowledge of the Star Trek world.

This one will be about Bajorans because it will be long already. Other languages in another post.

Bajorans have a frequent-use name and a given name. They generally use the name (is it a family name? A clan name? A last name? What do we know about Bajoran family system? So far, not much). BUT the given name is used when you trust the person, it is something you ask to establish a closer connection than with the usual name, as seen with Kira when she is sent to evacuate the old man from the moon, when he asks her her given name because he won't use the official name in his peace of paradise. So "Kira" is the official name, the one she generally uses, could be similar to a last name in English speaking countries but I feel like it is actually more like a name in some other countries where that name will be used in official settings but you have the real name you use with friends and family. Nobody calls her Nerys, except for that man and because he asked to be inside her circle of trust. He is also a plain man, not in the military, in the ministry or in the church, unlike most of all the other Bajorans we meet. Who calls her Nerys then?

Regarding Bajoran language: first of all it bothers me that Klingon and Vulcan were developed by linguists but not Bajoran or Cardassian. Come the fuck on. I hope linguists were hired at least to make consistency in what we don't hear. I would have paid real life money to hear Kira speaking Bajoran with Vedek Bareil when she took some days off in the monastery. Or when she is pissed off to complain with herself or to threaten another Bajoran.

Now that the complaint is made, Bajoran has slightly longer names but rarely longer than 3 syllables. It sounds more similar to Human languages (particularly to English) in that way than many other of the languages in DS9.

Given that religion is VERY important at all levels of Bajoran society and it seems to be the only thing uniting Bajorans, as stated by Kira, I guess their worst insults, slurs and cursing are religion related. They have the accepted publicly version and the real word which is terrible and if you hear a Bajoran using it, you know you're in trouble.

They probably have lots of idioms and proverbs related to Cardassians and to basic survival. It is likely that a Bajoran greeting is something along the lines of "Have you eaten?", "Are you tired?" or about other vital matters. Small talk is likely about your pagh and how the prophets are treating you and your family. Men are more likely to do small talk and to be hospitable (as seen with Vedek Bareil and the old man in the moon). Women are less talkative and more efficient, which makes them seem rougher.

So far, this is what I have noticed. I may update this as I progress in the series.

[aardwolfpack]

Bajoran relic seen in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "The Reckoning."  The rectangular glyphs are ligatures of the ordinary square Bajoran glyphs.

[aardwolfpack]

Fanon Bajoran syllabary from the Bajoran Archive (which has disappeared from the Web).  Found on another old site.