tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jan 02 04:29:22 2006
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Re: KLBC DIS chu'
- From: Philip Scott <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: KLBC DIS chu'
- Date: Mon, 2 Jan 2006 12:28:42 +0000 (GMT)
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tera' DIS chu' botivjaj
Thank you very much Ter'eS.
That's very helpful especially concerning more than one adjective qualifying a noun and preempts a question I was going to ask about adjectives. What has been confusing me is that klingon adjectives are verbs.
So.
valbogh loD 'ej qanbogh
('wise old man' lit. 'man who is intelligent and old')
would subsequent adjectives be joined on with 'ej?
valbogh loD 'ej qanbogh 'ej Quchbogh 'ej pivbogh
('wise, old, happy, healthy, man' it sounds a bit unnatural in English)
The comments you made regarding word choice ('Quch, ghaj) make total sense now that you mention it.
Phil
Terrence Donnelly <[email protected]> wrote:
Since this _is_ marked KLBC, I guess this
friendly little greeting becomes my first BG
assignment (sorry Phil!).
--- Philip Scott
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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