[tlhIngan Hol] Relevance of language ability to third person singular pronouns

James Stephenson c4p7.fl1n7 at gmail.com
Fri Sep 7 20:45:16 PDT 2018


On Fri, Sep 07, 2018 at 08:20:13PM -0400, SuStel wrote:
> 
> English /he/ and /she/ (etc.) indicate sex or (more recently) gender
> identity, something that Klingon doesn't distinguish at all in its pronouns.
> In English a noun typically graduates from an /it/ to a /he/ or /she/ when
> it obtains a male/female gender that someone cares to mention. This doesn't
> happen in Klingon. Hence the question, when does a Klingon noun graduate
> from an *'oH* to a *ghaH?* It's not when the noun gains a gender. So when is
> it?
> 

I personally think that it is the same distinction as bIH / chaH
(although as a beginner my opinion shouldn't count for too much), but
the question does get me thinking. In English we sometimes refer to an
animal as an it, and sometimes as a he or she. Pets are almost always
referred to as he / she, while animals that we aren't attached to as
much are more likely to be referred to as it.

I wonder if something similar goes on in Klingon, not with animals,
but with computers that have a natural language interface. Would a
Klingon who used such a computer regularly start to unconsciously
refer to the computer as a ghaH?

James




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