In English, the hyphen used this way represents a genitive relationship. In Klingon, the genitive relationship is automatic in the noun-noun construction, so unnecessary. I've got no objection if you want to punctuate this way, but it is redundant. And you'll probably want to justify why you hyphenate vIghro'-ghu but not tlhIngan-Hol, and so on.
Hyphenation in this manner makes sense as a way to distinguish genitive constructions from other nouns placed side by side. But I don't know if you would want to do it all the time.
-------- Original message --------
From: mayqel qunen'oS <mihkoun@gmail.com>
Date: 11/28/21 9:25 AM (GMT-05:00)
To: tlhIngan Hol mailing list <tlhingan-hol@kli.org>
Subject: [tlhIngan Hol] expressing baby animals
I remember having talked about this in the past without reaching a conclusion.
Anyways, I just decided that until we get a Ca'Non way to express this (yeah right, as if that's ever gonna happen..) I'll be using {Ha'DIbaH-ghu} like this:
{vIghro'-ghu} for "kitten"
{ngavyaw'-ghu} for "puppy"
{bo'Degh-ghu} for whatever the hell you call baby birds in english.
Of course one could ask "but why don't say the opposite? i.e. {ghu-vIghro'}?".
I thought of this possibility, and to be honest I can't feel much of a difference between a "cat baby" and a "baby cat", but perhaps being influenced from the Ca'Non {DI'raq loD}/{DI'raq be'}, which perhaps have nothing to do with the matter at hand, I prefer the {vIghro'-ghu} more. Let alone that the {vIghro'-ghu} is closer to the "baby of the cat" meaning. True, I could write just {vIghro' ghu} but I like the dash variety better.
Of course, in a couple of months, I may have forgotten what I wrote today and write {ghu-vIghro'}. Or {vIghro' ghu}. Go figure.
And yes, I know that perhaps klingon doesn't do dashes between words, but as you well know I don't give a crap. I couldn't care less. No, seriously, if I cared any less I could die.
Just wanted to let you know.