[tlhIngan Hol] Placement of the qatlh

[Lieven L. Litaer]

Am 18.02.2019 um 15:58 schrieb SuStel:
Yes, this is a murky area of Klingon grammar :-)

> Except we know that sometimes when Okrand says /sentence/ he means the 
> verbal clause under consideration. 

Yes, of course.

> You would not, for instance, 
> translate /I ask why I was chosen/ as *qatlh jIjatlh vIwIvlu'pu'?* A 
> sentence-as-object is still a sentence, but you'd put the *qatlh* with 
> the piece it belongs with: *jIjatlh qatlh vIwIvlu'pu'; qatlh vIwIvlu'pu' 
> jIjatlh.*

I agree with that example, but I think it's different from what mayqel 
asked. He had a question: Why was I chosen to fight the enemy? Is that 
{qatlh jagh vISuvmeH vIwIvlu'} or {jagh vISuvmeH qatlh vIwIvlu'?} - at 
this point, they both sound fine to me.

And using jatlh gets us a lot more into trouble. First, {jatlh} is such 
a special situation, and next, you are using the word "why" not as a 
question word, but in a way that it changes a question to a statement.

There's a difference between "I ask why I was chosen." and "I ask: why 
was I chosen?"

-- 
Lieven L. Litaer
aka the "Klingon Teacher from Germany"
http://www.klingonisch.de
http://www.klingonwiki.net/En/Questions