tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Oct 21 10:03:33 1996
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Re: Quotations in tlhingan Hol
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>Date: Sat, 19 Oct 1996 08:56:17 -0700
>From: "Adrian Kubala" <[email protected]>
>Just wondering:
> Are you allowed to use something like:
>yijatlhQo' jatlh. jiH munuQ 'oH.
>
> for:
>
>"Stop talking," he said. "It annoys me."
First... "yIjatlhQo'" is more "don't talk." "Stop talking" is "bIjatlh 'e'
yImev." "jIH munuQ 'oH" is kind of wordy; usually those pronouns are
dropped unless there is some emphasis or need to specify them involved;
"munuQ" is really all you'd need.
Now, to the question you actually DID ask.
It's a good question. I doubt there's an answer. I doubt Okrand knows the
answer (any canon?) because I don't think he considered it. The business
about the precise conventions when writing quotations, I think, are pretty
specific to the language. There's even a special name for those
"interrupted" quotes like you have above in English, isn't there? I tend
to doubt there's a good answer; it sounds like it's all convention, and a
convention that hasn't been spelled out. To me, the English-style
interrupted method looks okay, but I'm positive that's my native bias. It
could even be argued that Okrand would say you need to quote the whole
thing or mention the attribution twice, since he says that quotations
follow or precede their attributions (ah, but an interrupted quotation DOES
follow or precede its attribution... indeed, it does both!)
You might want to err on the side of caution and not use this construction.
~mark
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