[Tlhingan-hol] KLBC: Holiday Card Challenge ("First Day of Christmas")

[John R. Harness]

Hi! Good question.

Remember that "there are no adjectives as such in Klingon." (The Klingon
Dictionary, Section 4.4). The way that we express something like English
adjectives is with certain verbs that are translated as "be X" that follow
the noun they modify.

Doy' - be tired
tIn - be big

So in the phrase "first day of Christmas," what you need to look to is the
noun-noun construction (TKD, section 3.4).

These have the form N1-N2 and are translated "N1's N2" (or "the N2 of N1").

So you were very close to the correct form when you wrote {jaj wa'DIch
QISmaS}; however, the correct phrase is {QISmaS jaj wa'DIch}. As this fits
the correct N1-N2 form. The {wa'DIch} is modifying {jaj}, and there is no
confusion with too many "adjectives" flying around.



> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2015 16:10:03 -0600
> From: Chelsea Knauf <chelsea.knauf at gmail.com>
> Cc: tlhIngan Hol mailing list <tlhingan-hol at kli.org>
> Subject: Re: [Tlhingan-hol] KLBC: Holiday Card Challenge ANNOUNCEMENT
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> I ran into a grammar question.  Is there a way to attach an adjective and a
> possessor to a noun?
> {qechvam jatlhlu' 'e' vISovbe'.  DelwI' ghajwI' je ghajlaH'a' DIp?}
>
> For example, "the first day of Christmas":  {jaj wa'DIch QISmaS}?  I'm
> unsure how to reword it to remove the doubled adjectives: {QISmaS
> 'oHtaHvIS, jaj wa'DIch Daqtagh qanobpu'}?
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