Re: Insult (jara: Weekly Vocab 8)

--- Stone Gordonssen <stonegordonssen@...>
wrote:
> >I haven't worked out Alelliawulian enough to
> translate
> >that, but you'd get a similar reaction from them.
> >They have five sexes and require one of each for
> >reproductive sex.  Figuring out how to use pronouns
> in
> >stories about them is infuriating.
>
> I'm curious just how you do manage this when writing
> about them in English.
>
>
I haven't figured it out yet.  Which is one of the
reasons my story about the cloudspirits stalled out.
There are only so many stylistically valid ways to
avoid pronouns and then the text starts *feeling*
contrived and . . . Well, in my notes I refer to their
sexes as alpha, beta, gamma, delta and epsilon.

Personally, I would feel comfortable using HE for
either an alpha OR a beta.  Role-wise they feel sort
of like two different "flavors" of masculinty.  I'd
feel okay with using SHE for either a delta or an
epsilon.  I have NO idea what to use for gammas.  And
if I have both and alpha and a beta or a delta and an
epsilon is a piece what then?

And this story has two alphas as main characters and
at least mentions characters of ALL the genders.  As
did that also stalled piece on Alelliawulian
courtship.

Adam