[tlhIngan Hol] Marc Okrand answering some questions

[De'vID]

On Sun, 2 Dec 2018 at 21:06, Lieven L. Litaer <levinius at gmx.de> wrote:

>   - {-Du'} is a suffix for body parts and is generally used for body
> parts. When non-body parts are named after body parts (like the teeth on
> a gear or a cumb) then they are still associated with body parts, so the
> suffix {-Du'} is used. But there are very few words that originally were
> body parts, but the connection to the body part meaning has been lost.
> So now, they use {-mey} for plural suffix.
>

I have a follow-up from Maltz for this about the suffix for body parts
which are removable or transferable (e.g., in the case of hermit crabs).

--- begin quote ---
{nagh DIr} is considered a body part. The plural takes -{Du'}. That's the
case whether the shell is still on the animal or not. But if the shell (off
the animal) is broken up and a piece or pieces of it are used for something
(like turtle shells here on Earth have been used for guitar picks), the
plural takes {-mey}.
--- end quote ---

-- 
De'vID
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