sei was originally added to the language in order to a) allow one to make metalinguistic statements about the text (and/or the speaker) and b) sspecifically to deal with describing how a quote was made (he says parenthetically). The latter can be inserted within the body of a text quote as "seisa'a" which amounts to a temporary unquote. Longer temporary unquotes cvan be made using tosa'a ...toi lojbab