RE: KLBC: ja'

["Andeen, Eric" <Eric.Andeen@Sequencia.com>]

ghel ijeyD. jatlh :

> How do you say  "I talk to you"
> 
> SoHvaD jI<verb>         OR       qa<verb>
> 
> 
> where  the verb is  ja'  or Qum  or somthing 
> else along those lines?

It depends a lot on the verb. If the verb is <ja'>, then things are easy:
the object of <ja'> is usually the person (or the thing) spoken to.
Examples:

qama' vIja' <yIba'!> - "I told the prisoner 'Sit!'"
<bIr bIQ> muja' loDnI'wI' - "My brother told me the water is cold".
<naDev Dujraj yIverghQo'!> javlogh reja'pu' jay' - "We've told you six times
not to park your ship here, darn it!"
etc.

For other verbs, things are different. The object of <jatlh> is a language,
a speech, a sentence, a word, or something similar. You would therefore
generally say <SoHvaD jIjatlh>. You can, however, use the "prefix trick"
(see the FAQ for more) with <jatlh> to say <tlhIngan Hol qajatlh> instead of
<SoHvaD tlhIngan Hol vIjatlh>.

<Qum> is different again. I suspect the most common use of <Qum> is like
<maQum> - "we communicate" - with no object at all. It also seems reasonable
that <Qum> could take an object like <De'>, although it seems just as
possible that it cannot take an object at all. If it can, then it behaves a
lot like <jatlh> or <nob> in this case (although it is not a verb of
speaking): the recipient of the information gets a <-vaD>, and the prefix
trick can be applied.

As a final example, consider <jach>. <jach> is "scream", and based on
Okrand's comments on verbs of speaking, I am guessing it probably can't take
an object at all, except maybe <bey>. In this case, if I were screaming at
someone, I would say something like:

jIjachtaHvIS petaQ vIja' < . . . >


pagh
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