[87676] in tlhIngan-Hol
jatlh vs. ja'
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (David Trimboli)
Thu Jan 21 09:26:18 2010
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2010 09:24:48 -0500
From: David Trimboli <david@trimboli.name>
To: tlhingan-hol@kli.org
Errors-to: tlhingan-hol-bounce@kli.org
Reply-to: tlhingan-hol@kli.org
While we know that {jatlh} and {ja'} are the two "verbs of saying,"
there has been little discussion about the difference between the two.
Some people treat them as if they were interchangeable, and this has
always bothered me, because I see two very different meanings.
Specifically, {ja'} "tell, report" seems to refer to informing and
ordering, while {jatlh} "speak, say" has a more general meaning of
speech of any kind.
If true, one would not expect to see, for instance, Quvar's recent
sentence, {ja' tera'ngan, <naDevvo' vaS'a'Daq majaHlaH'a'?>} The Terran
isn't informing the Klingon about anything or ordering him; he's asking
for information. {jatlh} is required. On the other hand, the second
sentence, {ja' tlhIngan, <lIchopbe'chugh ghewmey>} works because the
Klingon is informing the Terran of the answer (there is an implied
{HIja'} there). But if {jatlh} were used instead, it would still work.
I'm not considering here what the correct object of {ja'} is. Okrand
discussed {jatlh} in detail, but every use of {ja'} has been
inconclusive in that regard.
Anyway, this is just the way I see it, and I feel compelled every couple
of years to bring it up.
--
SuStel
http://www.trimboli.name/
