It comes down to whether or not {ghel} can be used as the verb of speech referring to the quotation. At one point, Okrand said that we could only be sure that {jatlh} was correct for this, and we know that {jatlh} is always acceptable for this, even for questions. I believe that later on, he loosened up a bit and gave a short list of other words that can be used in the {jatlh} role of direct quotations.

The known verbs of speech are jatlh and ja'.

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SuStel
http://trimboli.name