tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Jan 01 13:35:56 2006

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Re: KLBC DIS chu'

Terrence Donnelly ([email protected]) [KLI Member] 

Since this _is_ marked KLBC, I guess this
friendly little greeting becomes my first BG
assignment (sorry Phil!).

--- Philip Scott <[email protected]> wrote:

> DIS chu' tera' Quch boghajjaj!
> 
>   May you all have a Happy Terran new year!
>    

There are a few pitfalls in this deceptively
simple phrase.  To begin with, {tera'} is a
noun, not an adjective, so it should go before
the noun {DIS} in an N-N construction:

{tera' DIS} = Terran year (literally "year of
Terra") (compare to the canon {romuluS HIq} 
'Romulan ale')

You still have two adjectives modifying {DIS},
and they can't just follow the noun like that:
*{DIS chu' Quch}  (the * is a standard way of
marking a wrong usage).  The most correct
according to canon would be {chu'bogh DIS 
'ej Quchbogh} "year which is new and happy".
So this wish could be rendered {chu'bogh tera' 
DIS 'ej Quchbogh boghajjaj}.  

However, I have two concerns that aren't so much 
grammatical as lexical, and so these are more my 
opinions than analyses of your grammar.

First, my sense is that the verb {ghaj} doesn't
really equate to "have" in the phrase "Have a
Happy New Year."  I don't think a year is something
you can "have" in Klingon. This seems idiomatic to 
English to me, and a closer Klingon verb to the 
actual idea might be {tIv} "enjoy".  By the same 
token, I'm not sure that the adjective {Quch} can 
be used for an intangible like a year; I think by
and large only people can be happy.  But if you
accept the verb swap, you don't really need the
adjective, and the whole phrase could become
{tera' DIS chu' botIvjaj} "May you enjoy the Terran
New Year." (Note that {chu'} can go back to its
regular adjective place now that it is the only
adjective in the phrase.)

>   Phil
>    
> 
-- ter'eS BG

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