On May 16, 2019, at 06:25, Lieven L. Litaer <levinius@gmx.de> wrote:
The issue here, is "if you needed to pluralize a noun, which refers to people, but that noun wasn't capable of language, would you use {-pu'} or {-mey}" ?
I would base this on the explanation in KGT, p. 152, with the word {Ho'} which is a slang term for "hero", but means "tooth:
Yes, this. But besides this fact, that we seem to follow the normal plural suffix of the word and not what it represents, and the fact that we don’t know whether {veQ} can be pluralized at all, even *if* the “correct”, “normal” answer in this situation would be to use {-pu'}, then using {-mey} could add an additional layer of insult to the situation, assuming they’re not also scattered all about. So obviously, if you’re going to use anything, use {-mey}.