There is no perfect way to distinguish direct and reported speech except using quotes. Common practice is:soweli Elepanto wrote:Is direct speech is not allowed or bad-sounded without "e ni" or "e nimi ni"? But I feel that too much of "e (nimi) ni" make the text too uniform. Dont't it? By the way: What is the difference between "e ni" and "e nimi ni"?
jan Ote li toki e ni: jan ike li kama. -- Ote said that enemy was approaching.
jan Ote li toki e ni: "jan ike li kama." -- Ote said: "Enemy is approaching".
But:
jan Ote li toki e nimi ni: "jan ike li kama." -- Ote said these words: "Enemy is approaching". (it suggests that these are his own words).
To make it less uniform you can use some additional expresions in a sentence:
jan Ote li toki tawa jan utala li toki e ni: "jan ike li kama."
jan Ote li open e uta ona li toki e ni: "jan ike li kama."
Since it's an old legend, 'a tale of bygone years', some parallelisms are more natural than they would be in a modern story.
I'm not an expert, but never seen 'tenpo monsi' before. The expression 'tenpo pini' means "past time"; the past.soweli Elepanto wrote:What is a difference between "tenpo monsi" and "tenpo pini"?
http://bknight0.myweb.uga.edu/toki/lesson/lesson17.html
It comes from:
pini
n end, tip
mod completed, finished, past, done, ago
vt finish, close, end, turn off
while 'monsi' means 'back, rear end, butt, behind'. Using 'tenpo pini' is using a term meaning 'time finished, completed'. It's finished, then it is [in] the past. Using 'tenpo monsi' means using a specific metaphor: a past time, a time finished is behind us. But in some cultures this is the future that is behind us (that's why we cannot see it). And the past is in front of use (that's why we can see it).