Re: My languages

Adam Walker wrote:
> So what gender are infants and the mute?  If they aren't concidered sentient
> are they gender 4???
Yep.

> That'd be pretty perverse, but the Utakassi are
> primatives, aren't they?
I wouldn't call them primitive.  They're not at our level of
development, but they certainly have metal.  Bronze age or so.

Lots of languages place infants in non-human categories.  For that
matter, I've even heard native English speakers refer to infants as
"it".  And unborn children are often called "it", especially by
pro-abortionists.  It's all a matter of where you consider the quality
of "human" to begin.  The Kassi consider that to begin with the
acquisition of speech.  In our culture, most people consider it to begin
either at birth or some point before birth.

When you think about it, there is a logic to the Kassi view.  Language
is one of the major characteristics which distinguish humans from
animals.  So, in a sense, the acquisition of language is the entrance
into humanity.

Note, I'm not saying I agree with them, only that there's a logic.  :-)

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