[tlhIngan Hol] Expressing "neutral gender"

[Will Martin]

Unless you are planning on having sex with an alien, why would you care if it were male or female or neither? Some trees are considered male and others of its species female, but unless you are seeking fertile fruit, most people never bother to figure out whether a tree is a he or a she.

Klingon doesn’t have sexually classified gender like English does. Most languages don’t. Gender can have all kinds of categorization systems, like marking the difference between old words vs. newer words borrowed from some other language. Klingon gender has to do with marking the difference between beings capable of using language, body parts, and everything else. Biological sex role has nothing to do with it.

So, in Klingon, you’d be less interested in noting that it wasn’t male or female (since there is no “he” or “she” or “it” to use as the pronoun when discussing the alien), but instead, you’d be trying to figure out whether it used language.

charghwI’ vaghnerya’ngan

rInpa’ bomnIS be’’a’ pI’.




> On May 27, 2019, at 7:12 AM, mayqel qunen'oS <mihkoun at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I don't suppose, someone can come up with a descent way to say "this alien is of neutral gender", right ?
> 
> Because all I can think of, is crap like "this alien isn't male, and isn't female".
> 
> Anyways, thought I should ask, in case someone could think of something better.
> 
> Though I seriously doubt it..
> 
> But I *do* hope someone proves me wrong..
> 
> Which is something I seriously doubt too..
> 
> I'll just shut up now.
> 
> ~ m. qunen'oS 
> klingon has a complete vocabulary
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