[tlhIngan Hol] {'e'} of a sao and quotations

[Will Martin]

In English, we have direct quotation and we have indirect quotation. You are attempting to express an indirect quotation in Klingon (to avoid two nested direct quotations), and we do not have any confirmed grammar for indirect quotation in Klingon. Doing so as you are trying to do is effectively ignoring the rule about not using {‘e’} in the only grammatical form of quotation that we know of in Klingon.

You are not the first to try this. We’ve argued this out before.

Maybe what you are suggesting is allowed, but we have zero evidence of it in canon or in the grammar as explained for quotation.

-charghwI’, retired.

> On Aug 20, 2021, at 7:54 AM, mayqel qunen'oS <mihkoun at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> SuStel:
> > The rule is stated in TKD: "Similarly, with verbs of saying (say, tell, ask, etc.),
> >  'e' and net are not used. The two phrases simply follow one another, in either order."
> 
> Ok, wait. Does that rule concern too cases, where the purpose of the speaker isn't to actually quote something?
> 
> I knew that we can't quote things with the {'e'} of a sao; and because of this reason, in my initial post I wrote:
> 
>  {< nucholpu' jaghpu' > jIjatlhpu' HoDvaD 'e' yIjatlh}
> 
> I didn't write:
> 
> {jIjatlhpu' < nucholpu' jaghpu' > HoDvaD 'e' yIjatlh}
> 
> And intentionally I didn't write it this way, because if I wrote it this way, then in the sao, the object would be the quotation indeed. And this shows where my confusion is:
> 
> When we say "quotation" what do we actually mean? The way I understand it, if there's: {yaDDa yaDDa yaDDa, jIjatlhpu'}, then the quotation is *only* the {yaDDa yaDDa yaDDa}. The quotation isn't the {jIjatlhpu'} (which I don't know what it actually is..).
> 
> So, in the  {< nucholpu' jaghpu' > jIjatlhpu' HoDvaD 'e' yIjatlh}, no rules are broken, because the object of the sao isn't the quotation, but only the {jIjatlhpu'}.
> 
> Look at it another way..
> 
> Q waved his hand and an officer was rendered unable to talk for a period of time; then Q's power wears off, and the officer starts speaking again. So, he says to another member of the crew:
> 
> jIjatlhqa'pu' HoDvaD 'e' yIja'
> tell to the captain that I've spoken again
> 
> There's no quotation here. There are no words to be repeated for the captain. Similarly, in the {< nucholpu' jaghpu' > jIjatlhpu' HoDvaD 'e' yIjatlh}, the object is the {jIjatlhpu'} and the < nucholpu' jaghpu' > is something which happily just happens to sit by, away from the {'e'}.
> 
> So we're all happy, yes?
> 
> ~ Dana'an
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