SuStel:
Everybody keeps acting like I'm passing down an an edict, but I'm not. You asked whether you could say bIvoqbe' 'ej muSuj, and I said it's not ungrammatical. I questioned whether you really were eliding a ngoDvam or if you were really just eliding an 'e' and not admitting it to yourself.
You misunderstood me. Please, let me explain.. I *totally* agree with your analysis. Absolutely. As I wrote, I am convinced by the arguments you wrote. And believe it or not, I was relieved to read your analysis on my original sentence, because it made me understand. I *felt* that something was *not quite right* with that sentence, but I couldn't find what. And as soon as I read your opinion I understood. My problem is with the {tlhIngan maH! taHjaj!}..
From the first time I heard it, I felt that something was off with that sentence; but I knew that since a specific person wrote it, and it appears in a star trek too, then no one was going to admit that there is something not quite right with that sentence.
So, I took the opportunity of this thread, to express my problem with the {tlhIngan maH! taHjaj!}.. I never liked it anyway.. Now, probably 'oqranD will canonize it, but that's another matter. What matters is that we understand what's happening with that phrase: 1. If anyone else wrote it, he would hear that he is wrong 2. ..which would be true 3. however okrand will probably canonize it because.. 4. it appears in a star trek, and.. 5. he wouldn't want to say to a friend of maltz that his sentence has serious issues So, the morale of all this is twofold: 1. If you are a friend of maltz, and you write sentences which appear in a movie, then all is allowed 2. If you are a mere mortal, i.e. a nobody, then you better follow the rules or you're f****d ~ m. qunen'oS I find sentences as subjects disturbing