[Tlhingan-hol] beings capable of speech

[De'vID jonpIn]

De'vID:
> > I don't know whether the apparent Human penchant for writing stories
> > where the protagonists are animals extends to Klingons, but if they
> > also tell stories involving talking animals, or if they were to
> > translate such stories into Klingon, would the animals take the "beings
> > capable of speech" suffixes?

QeS 'utlh:
> We have two small pieces of evidence that come to mind; unfortunately
> they contradict each other. The first is the continued use of {-Du'} with
> words like {DeSqIv} even when the word applies to the handles of a pot;
> the other is the variable use of {-pu'} or {-mey} to apply to speech-
> mimicking birds like the {qaryoq} or {vIlInHoD}.
> [... poD...]
> The fact that Maltz's criterion for using {-mey} is the lack of sensible
> conversation tells me that something that one *can* sensibly engage in
> conversation with would be generally considered as {-pu'}-able. So talking
> targs would be {targhpu'}.

So, in a fictional universe where a Klingon cannot converse intelligibly
with a {targh}, but a {vIghro'} can, a Klingon would refer to {targhmey},
whereas a {vIghro'} would refer to {targhpu'}.   At least I think that's
what you're saying. And that makes sense to me.

De'vID:
> > Would a talking {raS} refer to its {'uSDu'}?

QeS 'utlh:
> Yes. I reckon the {nevDagh} example makes it incontrovertible - and even
> if the table was non-talking I still think it has {'uSDu'}, not {'uSmey}.

Okay.  But what about a body part a piece of talking furniture has, which
isn't exactly analogous to a humanoid (klingonoid?) body part.  Say, a
{raS}'s {'aqroS}.  Is the plural {'aqroSmey} or {'aqroSDu'}?  Or, say, a
talking car's wheels (think of Thomas the Tank Engine): are they
{rutlhmey}, or {rutlhDu'}?

(This is now diverging from the original topic of talking animals... but
whatever.)

--
De'vID
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