tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Apr 30 08:10:40 2008
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Re: Klingon WOTD: ngIp (verb)
Alan Anderson wrote:
> On Apr 29, 2008, at 10:36 PM, Sangqar wrote:
>> qatlh SAO 'e' DaQub?
>> SAO qatlh 'e' DaQub?
>> SAO 'e' qatlh DaQub?
>>
>> So is there a consensus on placement of question words in sentences
>> with SAO?
>
> Your first option is obviously wrong, since it puts the question word
> outside the sentence which is asking the question. Your second
> option follows the prescribed grammar. Your final one follows the
> example in Skybox card S26, {lurSa' be'etor je} "Lursa and B'Etor":
Now that I have light again, I just reread the appropriate section in
TKD. You're right; Okrand specifically says "This sentence is actually
two", even though he consistently punctuates sentence pairs with {'e'}
as a single sentence. Once you stop letting Okrandian punctuation
mislead you, it becomes obvious that the second option seems to be the
correct one.
(Of course, there's the Azetbur example, where of necessity we are
dealing with two sentences, since they are spoken by different actors.
But punctuation isn't visible in spoken dialogue.)
Do we have any actual canon examples of the second pattern? Or is this a
case of the community saying "We think A is right, even though our only
canon example uses B"?