[tlhIngan Hol] unable to use the upper case letter to specify by not specifying

[Mark E. Shoulson]

On 8/11/20 1:10 PM, SuStel wrote:
> On 8/11/2020 10:59 AM, mayqel qunen'oS wrote:
>> In greek/english we*can*  say:
>>
>> standing before His altar
>>
>> In the sentence above, although we don't say who this "he" is, the
>> upper case "H" shows that the one in question isn't someone "regular".
>> He can be a god, kahless, molor, melkor, etc.
>>
>> Now, perhaps someone thinks that "by definition the altar is something
>> of a god, or in honor of one". But there's also the case where saying
>> "standing before his altar" can actually mean "the practitioner stands
>> before the altar which he constructed in order to honor whoever he
>> worships".
>>
>> So it falls upon the "h/H" to distinguish..
>>
>> The fact that we can't do that simple thing in klingon irritates me.
>
> The fact that it's done in English irritates me. As a non-religious 
> person, I get annoyed at seeing God have his own special grammar. I'd 
> be glad not to see it in Klingon.
>
The fact that it's done in English irritates me even as a religious 
person.  (And it isn't even done all THAT regularly. There are many 
English Bibles, published by religious folk, that do not capitalize the 
pronouns.)  It certainly isn't something you can assume you have the 
right to in any language.  I will point out that throughout the entire 
Hebrew Bible (in the original Hebrew), there is not a *single* case of a 
pronoun for God being capitalized.  Should you point out that this is 
because Hebrew (like Klingon!) does not have a concept of capital 
letters, well, you've just made the point that much better.  You can't 
demand to be able to use uppercase letters, because nobody said you'd 
have them.  Not every script does.

(Honestly, I think the whole concept of a bicameral alphabet is just a 
Bad Idea all around, but it's too late to fix it.)

~mark