tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Nov 22 15:30:37 1999

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing



[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]

Re: *Egypt* Hol navmey



jIjatlh:
>I tend to think of the quote as a direct object to the verb.
>For example, in
>
>jatlh vay':
>>vay' vIjatlhlI'.
>
>I think of "vay' vIjatlhlI'" as being the direct object of 
>{jatlh}.

QIj *pagh:
>A quote is never the direct object of anything. It is a quote. Okrand has
>been very specific about this. The object of <jatlh> (if any) can be a
>language (Hol), a speech (SoQ), a sentence (mu'tlhegh), or other similar
>things, but if it's a quote, it's a quote, not an object. The object of
><ja'> (if any) is probably always a person or something else which is spoken
>to. Quotes can go either before or after the associated sentence, and the
>verb prefix does not treat the quote like an object. Examples:
>
>jIjatlh <jIghung>. - "I said 'I am hungry'".
><bImoH> qaja'. - "I told you 'you are ugly'".
>muja' matlh <DaH DayajchoH!>. - "Maltz said to me 'Now you are beginning to
>understand!'".
>
>The <> punctuation for quotes is in there was for clarity, but Okrand does
>not use it.
>
>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.

DaH jIyaj. So when quoting oneself, it is correct to say {jIjatlh:}, not 
{vIjatlh:}, as I have done in the past, qar'a'?

jIjatlh:
>(Actually, if the quote is a direct object, Klingon grammar 
>dictates that it should look more like this:
>>vay' vIjatlhlI'.
>:jatlh vay'
>but I still consider the quotes to be direct objects. Beside, 
>that looks rather ugly to human eyes.)

yajbe'law' *pagh:
>nuqjatlh?

I was just referring to the standard O-V-S sentence structure. If quotes were 
direct objects (as I though they were), then the quote would have to precede 
the {jatlh vay'}. Of course, since I now know that quotes *aren't* direct 
objects, my point was meaningless.

My next challenge: Trying to get used to saying {jIjatlh} instead of 
{vIjatlh}.  ;-)

- DujHoD


Back to archive top level