[Tlhingan-hol] beings capable of speech

[Rohan Fenwick - QeS 'utlh]

ghItlhpu' De'vID, jatlh:
> 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? 

jIjangpu', jIjatlh: 
> 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'}. 

mujang De'vID, jatlh: 
> 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.

Precisely.

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

jIjangpu', jIjatlh:
> 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}. 

mujang De'vID, jatlh: 
> 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}.

I actually think {'aqroS} is a bit different. To me anything can have an
{'aqroS}, even humans; I'd be happy to say {'aqroSwIjDaq ba'taH mIl'oD} "a
sabre bear is sitting on top of me". It's an area of your body, but not a
discrete body part as such. So I think you could talk about {'aqroSmey},
but not {'aqroSDu'}.

taH:
> Or, say, a talking car's wheels (think of Thomas the Tank Engine): are  
> they {rutlhmey}, or {rutlhDu'}? 

Ooo, that's tough. If someone were translating Thomas the Tank Engine I
don't think I'd have a problem with {rutlhDu'} and I can't even say why.
I suppose if you're going to anthropomorphise (Klingonomorphise?) a
train and give it a face, then it logically follows that it would think
of its own wheels as parts of its body. Who knows?

QeS 'utlh