OT: Taboo in conlangs (Was: Re: OT: alien-ness portrayals; was Re: I'm new!)

On Mon, Oct 23, 2000 at 10:58:27AM +0000, Adam Walker wrote:
[snip]
> Ob Conlang:  What subjects are taboo in your conlangs?  Age, sexuality,
> wages, religion, family, the weather?
[snip]

Well, I don't know if this is properly classified as a "taboo" but my
conlang's conculture is *hyper* sensitive to using the correct gender to
refer to people. This sensitivity is, of course, reflected in the
existence of 5 genders in the language.

The rules are:
1) any time you're addressing a mixed audience, you MUST, absolutely MUST
  use the epicene gender. (Unless you were specifically referring to
  either only the males or only the females.) Using anything else is
  considered extremely rude and offensive, and could well qualify as
  reason to start a fight/revolt.

2) when you're speaking with a stranger, you always use the epicene gender
  when addressing them, unless it's obvious they are male or female. And
  once their gender becomes clear, you MUST switch to the proper gender in
  your pronouns immediately; failing to do so constitutes an injurious
  personal insult (regarded on the same level as calling someone's mother
  a prostitute). In order to notice any "hints", you have to listen *very*
  carefully, because the first person singular pronoun is marked for
  gender, and you must be able to catch it when the stranger uses it.

3) rule (2) actually generalizes to *all* uses of the pronouns -- for
  example, if you're talking about a certain person who is not present
  during the conversation, and you do not know his/her gender, you may use
  the epicene pronouns to refer to him/her; but once it becomes clear,
  (e.g. when the other party of the conversation uses a masculine or
  feminine pronoun instead on an epicene, showing that they know that
  person's gender), you MUST immediately switch over. Otherwise, your
  listeners would either think you're deliberately insulting that person,
  or think that you're an unwashed, uneducated fool who shouldn't be
  in their company.

4) As an additional complexity, it is taboo to ask a person their gender,
  even when it's not clear. Very taboo. Attempting to do so not only
  labels you as a fool; the act itself could easily be reason enough to
  excommunicate you entirely from society. You must always infer a
  person's gender by how they refer to themselves (since the first person
  pronouns are gendered), or by how others refer to them. And you must
  *never* forget a person's gender once you learn it, because if anyone
  knows that you *should* know what the gender of a person is, and notices
  you still using the epicene to refer to that person, his/her respect for
  you will immediately drop to nil. (Unless, of course, you were making a
  general statement that isn't specific to one person; in that case, the
  epicene is allowed and encouraged.)


T