[2636] in tlhIngan-Hol
tlhIngan Hol qun vIwam - an article
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Wed Jan 19 10:19:11 1994
Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.East.Sun.COM>
From: shoulson@ctr.columbia.edu (Mark E. Shoulson)
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.East.Sun.COM>
Date: Wed, 19 Jan 1994 10:05:11 -0500
In-Reply-To: TruthSeeker's message of Wed, 19 Jan 1994 10:45:56 +0000 (GMT) <13
341.9401191046@unix.bton.ac.uk>
>From: TruthSeeker <dh39@unix.brighton.ac.uk>
>Date: Wed, 19 Jan 1994 10:45:56 +0000 (GMT)
>This brings up another point. Ignore this if it is dealt with in TKD, but how
>are pronouns dealt with? Is there a useful genderless pronoun, which I could
>have used without feeling foolish in the message above?
Actually, there is. In fact, Klingon pronouns aren't gendered at all,
leastways not in the English sense. "ghaH" means "he or she"; any singular
being that is capable of using language. The distinction between
sentient/language using critters and non-sentients is grammatically
significant in Klingon, but the distinction between males and females
isn't. I've argued that an artificially intelligent computer program
should also be referred to as "ghaH." The plural form of "ghaH" is "chaH",
"they" for sentients. Non-sentient or non-living things are given the
singular pronoun "'oH", "it". Plural pronoun is "bIH". You'll see when
you get the dictionary.
~mark
