tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Dec 09 10:55:14 1999

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RE: jang. ja' <blah, blah, blah>



jatlh qa'ral:

> ghIq pagh QInvam vItu':

>> When I say <jang vay':> in a message, I don't mean
>> "Someone answered the following", I just mean
>> "someone answered". I've also used quote lines like
>> <mu' <veb> qel charghwI', ghunchu'wI' je:> or <ghoH
>> DoghwI'pu':>. The point of the sentence is *NOT*
>> that the quote is its object; it just describes the quote
>> that follows and (most importantly) attributes it to
>> whoever wrote it in the first place.

> toH!  Then "jIjang: <blah, blah, blah>" works as well 
> as "jIjang. jIja' <blah, blah, blah>"? What a relief! 
> And is "<blah, blah, blah> jIjang" kosher too?

Not so fast. The only way to use a quote in a sentence is to use <jatlh> or
<ja'>. The little tag line that gets added before a long quote in an email
message is *NOT* necessarily making the quote part of the sentence. Your
example - "Then I found this message of pagh's: " - is not a quote. It's a
sentence which describes what follows. If you wanted it to be a quote, you
would have to say "Then I found the message of pagh's. It said: ".

When you're writing a sentence quoting someone, you have to use <jatlh> or
<ja'>. This makes for some repetition, but you can vary things a bit in the
position of your quotes. You can also use <-meH> clauses. For example:

jatlh pagh <blah, blah, blah>. vIjangmeH vIja' <blah, blah, blah>. mujang
ghaH. <blah, blah, blah> jatlh. vIjang vIneHbe', 'ach jIjatlhnIS <blah,
blah, blah>. mon pagh, 'ach mujangbe'. montaH neH.


pagh
Beginners' Grammarian

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