On 9/7/2018 7:47 PM, Daniel Dadap wrote:

Personally, I think Okrand just assumed that the difference between it and he/she/him/her showed up the difference well enough. It's the fact that English they/them can cover plural it as well as he/she/him/her that warrants special mention of the difference between bIH and chaH, not the exclusivity of the capable-of-using-language status of the words.

Sure, but he/she/him/her doesn’t necessarily indicate language capability in English. Non-language capable beings can be hes and shes and hims and hers.

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?