On 2/18/2019 12:27 PM, Will Martin wrote:
Before Okrand revealed the prefix trick to us, {‘etlhlIj HInob} would have, indeed, been ungrammatical Klingon, encoded English. It would have not made sense in the Klingon language.
But Okrand DID reveal the prefix trick to us, and because of that {‘etlhlIj HInob} is perfectly grammatical in Klingon.
If he ever reveals to us how indirect quotation works in Klingon, the same will be true of your double-question, assuming that your version of how the grammar works matches whatever he comes up with. Before we knew how to use direct quotations, we had no grammar for it, and likely had we guessed, we would not have come up with what Okrand revealed to us, so earlier guesses would almost certainly be wrong. And yes, we spent years working with the language before we had any hint as to the grammar of how to make direct quotations.
We know perfectly well how "direct quotations" and "indirect quotations" work in Klingon: everything is a report of the actual speech, or else doesn't use a verb of speech. *qaja'pu' HIqaghQo'* /I told you not to interrupt me. /(TKD) // Literally it's /I told you, "Don't interrupt me!"/ but it's also used in situations where in English one wouldn't quote someone else's exact words. If it's not a verb of speech, then it's something like this: *qaqaghbe'pu' 'e' Datlhob*/You requested that I not interrupt you./ Here, I'm not reporting your speech. "Direct quotations" are explained in TKD; we did not spend years before he had a hint of how to use them. -- SuStel http://trimboli.name