[Tlhingan-hol] Klingon Word of the Day: naj

[David Trimboli]

On 8/29/2013 3:39 PM, Bellerophon, modeler wrote:
> This is something different: {jatlh} only takes a transitive prefix when
> the prefix trick is used? Is this true of any other verbs that can use
> the prefix trick, or just {jatlh}?

Reported speech uses different rules than other sentence-as-object 
constructions. This was clarified for us by Okrand back in the days of 
the MSN newsgroups, but the basics are in TKD.

The only verbs allowed to report a direct quotation are {jatlh} and 
{ja'}. When used this way the sentence expressing the speaking and the 
quotation are pushed together end to end, in either order. The quotation 
is not the object of the sentence expressing speech; this is not an 
application of the prefix trick.

puqbe'wI'vaD jIjatlh <yInajchu'>
<yInajchu'> puqbe'wI'vaD jIjatlh

I said to my daughter, "Sweet dreams."
"Sweet dreams," I said to my daughter.

You cannot put {yInajchu'} between {puqbe'wI'vaD} and {jIjatlh}, because 
you can't squeeze a sentence between the verb and its beneficiary. You 
simply shove the two separate sentences together.

-- 
SuStel
http://www.trimboli.name/