[tlhIngan Hol] difference between the nouns {Segh} and {mut}

SuStel sustel at trimboli.name
Thu Jan 27 12:07:48 PST 2022


On 1/27/2022 2:33 PM, Will Martin wrote:
> Technically, yes, members of different races can interbreed and 
> members of different species cannot. Meanwhile, the Star Trek universe 
> referred to beings from different planets as different species even 
> though, in that universe, they were capable of interbreeding. In that 
> way, basically, all hominids were one species, and green, grey, blue, 
> tan, brown and other colors of skin, bumpy foreheads, pointy ears, 
> horns and whatever mark different races.

Assuming that *mut* is a scientific term that equals the scientific, not 
layperson's, meaning of /species,/ then the interbreeding definition is 
one possible meaning of it, but not the only one. That definition is 
that a species is that taxonomic classification of creature whose 
members can mate and regularly produce fertile offspring. A mule, for 
instance, is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse, but it 
is usually infertile, so mules are not considered a separate species; 
they're hybrids.

But that's not the only scientific definition of /species./ Depending on 
the branch of science, a species might be defined by DNA, or morphology, 
or ecology. It's not so simple as whether or not they can interbreed.

/Star Trek's/ cross-breeding aliens are so outrageously impossible that 
to even try to make sense of it is an endeavor doomed to failure. Such 
characters are almost always writers' attempts to introduce a human 
perspective into an otherwise alien culture, at least in early stories. 
Once a franchise establishes that hybridization is inexplicably and 
freely available, hybrid characters start to show up simply because of 
the sheer impossibility of them not to.

This is an instance where one must simply suspend one's disbelief and 
move on.

One also has to wonder whether *mut* is a pun on the English word /mutt./


> Even the purest Brits are “Anglo-Saxons”, which doesn’t sound very 
> much like a pure race.

The Britons were in Britain long before the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. 
So were the Picts, but good luck tracing your ancestry to them.


-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name
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