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? -- SuStel http://trimboli.name