Re: Genderless Lingo

On Sun, 19 Dec 1999, Nik Taylor wrote:

> Patrick Dunn wrote:
> > As a science fiction afficionado (but not writer -- I've given up *grins*)
> > I have to say that I distrust such simplistic definitions of an entire
> > species as "warlike."  Are humans warlike?  Then what does one make of
> > quakers, Gandhi, and H. D. Thoreau?
>
> Quite true.  A culture can be said to be warlike, and it seems that
> sci-fi tends to make every race have one culture.
Exactly.  It's the same faux pas as making a planet have one climet
(pardon the brain fart: I know that's spelled wrong, but can't figure out
how to spell it right) -- the snow world of Hoth.  Possible, but unlikely,
for a life-bearing planet to be so homogeneous.

> > The advena borrow the word for "human": umn - "to be human".
>
> How would you say "human" as a noun?
You wouldn't.  IN Advena, every word is a verbal phrase, so "I'm human"
would be "umn-qa", "You are human", "umn-xa," "he is human" "umn-sa".
Incidently, I understand there *are* some Earth languages that do this --
they have words for "to be a <ethnic group>."  Advena just carries it way
too far.

So, how would you say, "the human loves me", for instance?  Simple:

R mda-sa-q umn-sa.

He loves me.  He is human.