Hello Vyc & Tinsnip! I've been coming through your guys' posts in preparation to write fic (and also for fun, honestly) and I was wondering if Kardasi has honorific suffixes - I'm really thinking of the Korean '-nim' here which is a little more formal than '-sshi' (Mister/Mrs) and is used for one's superiors, ex. doctors, teachers, bosses, grandparents, military ranks (higher than the speaker's rank), priests and monks, deities like Jesus (or just affixed to 'god'), political titles, etc...
I think I saw you mention somewhere that you were studying Japanese Vyc, and though my Japanese is super rusty I guess a similar comparison would be ā-sanā versus ā-senseiā though I donāt know how broadly āsenseiā is used outside of doctors and teachers? Anyway Iād really be interested in any rambling about titles or honorific suffixes you might have :) all I can think of is ā-linā for an endearment of sorts (if Iām remembering *that* right, haha).
Hiya! Thanks for this lovely PMāand good on you for remember that I (Vyc) am on-and-off studying Japanese!
Youāre right in that Kardasi currently only has -lin as a honourific suffix. Most of its honourific words are appended to the front of a personās name like in English. Thereās also iā, an honourific prefix that I neglected to add to the dictionary. Hereās a list of what we currently have:i'ruxt (Ms/Miss/Mrs)i'duxt (Mr)i'ces (Mx)s'h'iosr'ha (Doctor, courtesy of prairiecrow)parmani (guardian of children)jasi (other person who is superior in social status to me)atsi (other person who is inferior in social status to me)teāalakec (teacher)peldākec (professor, rendered as āInquisitorā by the Universal Translator)garac (approximately a defence attorney, rendered as āNestorā by the Universal Translator)ja-ketUntgat (prefect)ja-kal-jonak (chief magistrate)kal-jonak (magistrate, rendered as āArchonā by the Universal Translator)ketUntgat (provincial leader of Kardassiaās colonies, rendered as āExarchā by the Universal Translator)kUruntefkec (approximately a prosecutor)
And the military ranks, which Iām still pinning down but are currently:
jagat (rendered as āLegateā by the Universal Translator)jagul (commodore; general)gul (captain)dal (commander)dalin (lieutenant commander)glinn (lieutenant)gil/kel (ensign)garrec (crew member)
Most of these didnāt make the dictionary, as Iām thinking about making a separate document for specifically cultural words and concepts that donāt translate easily out of Kardasi.
As for how youād use them as titles, most of them follow the format of [Title] [Name], similar to the use of Gul Dukat in DS9, or Parmani IThas, to pick a name at random. You can also combine iā with civilian titles, like iākal-jonak, or āMadame Archonā in the episode āTribunal.ā
Will there be more honourific suffixes? Probably! @tinsnip and I just havenāt discussed them yet.