Plurals 4: People and Sentients

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When making a Klingon noun plural, you attach the suffix -mey to the noun if it is a general thing, an object incapable of using language; or -Du' if it is part of a body, whether animal or human.

What about people - men, women, husbands, Klingon, Ferengi, Captains, warriors, entities, energy beings and so on? Everyone, in other words, who is capable of using language?

For such sentients who are capable of using language, you use the noun suffix -pu'.

Examples

tlhIngan Klingon - tlhInganpu' Klingons

romuluSngan Romulan - romuluSnganpu' Romulans

loD man - loDpu' men

be' woman - be'pu' women

puq child - puqpu' children

SuvwI' warrior - SuvwI'pu' warriors

qama' prisoner - qama'pu' prisoners

Sample Sentences

romuluSnganpu' Suv tlhInganpu' The Klingons will fight the Romulans

tlhInganpu' SIgh be'pu' The women influence Klingons

jaghpu' DoH tlhIngan The enemies back away from the Klingon

Sentients and -mey

It is also possible to use the -mey plural noun suffix in the context of beings able to use language; however, as for using -mey as a plural with body parts, the specific meaning is all over the place, scattered all about:-

SuvwI'mey vIlegh I see warriors all over the place

puqpu' Da loDmey The men all scattered all about are behaving like children

Precedent: jIlajneS. ghIj qet jaghmeyjaj (Picard's acceptance speech, TNG)

Final Summary of Plural Suffixes

- For beings able to use language, use the noun suffix -pu'.

- For parts of a body, whether animal or sentient, use the noun suffix -Du'.

- For everything else and general usage, use the noun suffix -mey.

- The noun suffix -mey, used as a plural suffix for parts of the body or people rather than on things incapable of using language, always carries the specific connotation of all over the place or scattered all about.

- Finally, some awkward nouns have two different forms for the singular and plural such as ray' targets and DoS target. The -mey suffix can be used here, too, with the same connotation of scattered all about.

Other Noun Suffixes

So far, the lessons have only focused on one set of noun mojaqmey (also mojaQmey) suffixes at a time: in this case, the suffixes -pu', -Du' and -mey. These are all what are known as Type 2 noun suffixes.

tlhIngan Hol uses a total of five different categories or types of suffix, numbered Type 1 through to Type 5. Further posts will cover each of these different types of noun suffix.

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