title_body: How would you say "good morning" or "hello" politely in Klingon? Klingons from Star Trek aren't very polite, and the language developed for them reflects that - they don't exactly have many polite ways to say things. The closest think I've found to a polite greeting is "Nuq'nuh", which translates to "What do you want?", which... isn't very polite, IMO.
  
  Is there any way to approximate a polite greeting in Klingon?
upvoted_answer: This answer is based largely on my copy of The Klingon Dictionary (written by Marc Okrand, who created Klingon), which is reliable and good if you need a quick translation from English to Klingon or vice-versa. I'm going to cover most of the same ground as rotaredom's answer, just in more detail.
  The book notes that there aren't really any greetings in Klingon; they're simply unnecessary. Klingon as a language is somewhat utilitarian in its application, and exchanges typically start with a straightforward statement or query by one party. Saying the Klingon equivalent of &quot;How are you doing?&quot; when you just want to figure out the new ship's departure time is simply wasteful. One answer to your question, then, would be to simply avoid a greeting. The less you talk, the less time you take up. That said, if you want to truly greet someone, you have two options. . .
  Choice 1: Be utilitarian.
  This utilitarianism is why all Klingon &quot;greetings&quot; are just introductory phrases. &quot;nuqneH&quot; is the one that seems to be commonly used, as rotaredom said. Its translation is &quot;What do you want?&quot; &quot;Nuq&quot; itself can be treated as an interrogative sentence on its own, simply meaning &quot;What?&quot;1. It can also be used as the start of a sentence, such as
  
  nuq legh yaS
  
  which means
  
  What does the officer see?
  
  Additionally, &quot;neH&quot; is used as a form of &quot;to want&quot; (though it also used as an adverbial, to mean &quot;only&quot;). Therefore, we have the compound &quot;nuqneH&quot;, properly an exclamation that stands by itself as a sentence.
  Choice 2: Use an honorific.
  The Dictionary notes that &quot;neS&quot; is the only honorific suffix in Klingon, used as part of larger words. For instance, &quot;qaleghneS&quot;, coming from &quot;qa&quot; (&quot;you&quot;), &quot;legh&quot; (&quot;see&quot;) and &quot;neS&quot;, translates to
  
  I am honored to see you.
  
  This states a fact, and gets to the point. It may be used towards a superior, but this is not mandatory, and I don't think it's commonly used. If you wish to open the conversation with an inquiry, &quot;HIja'neS&quot; (which includes &quot;HIja&quot;, normally used as an affirmative) can work. Its translation is
  
  Do me the honor of telling me [about something].
  
  Again, use this when asking a superior something, but only if you really want to be respectful.
  Miscellaneous
  Though I have yet to see any of the following used as a greeting, I imagine you could modify them to create some sort of opening remark.
  
  &quot;bel&quot; is the verb for &quot;to be pleased&quot;, so when greeting someone, you could conceivably say &quot;jIbel&quot; (&quot;I am pleased&quot;, with &quot;jI&quot; for first-person). Likewise, &quot;Quch&quot; is the verb for &quot;to be happy&quot;. Using &quot;jIbel&quot; or &quot;jiQuch&quot; to indicate satisfaction upon meeting someone is a possibility.
  &quot;maj&quot; (&quot;Good&quot;) or &quot;majQa'&quot; (&quot;Well done&quot;) are exclamations used as praise. You could use these - preferably &quot;majQa'&quot; - when welcoming an inferior who has successfully completed a task, like blowing up an enemy spaceship.
  &quot;toH&quot; is another exclamation, meaning &quot;Well!&quot; or &quot;So!&quot; You would use this in, for instance, a sentence like
  
  Well! I didn't expect to see you back alive.
  
  
  
  
  1 Appending &quot;Daq&quot;, to make &quot;nuqDaq&quot;, yields &quot;Where?&quot;