Kilrathi language

Blaster

Rear Admiral
Something just occurred to me. I've always heard people talk about *the* Kilrathi language as if there was only one. Do all Kilrathi really speak the same language or is the one we know about just the most common one, or the one used to speak to other species maybe.

I can imagine each clan having its own language and using another one, maybe the language of the emperor's clan, for communication between clans.
 
Don't be ridiculous, any given species ESPECIALLY in sci fi speaks only one language. Vulcans speak Vulcan, Klingons speak Klingon, and so forth in Star Trek, for example. Humans speak one language known by many names, such as Basic, or Standard, or some other name that means English with some made-up swear words. Why should Kilrathi get special treatment?!
 
True, being in the realm of sci fi, there can be only one Kilrathi language, but there's still room for recognizable lowborn dialects and such.
 
As McGruff indicated, I only recall dialects being mentioned in novels, not whole different languages.
But for that matter, do we know anything about other languages than English in the Confederation?
 
I don't think there was.

As for there being other languages in the Terran Confederation, there probably are, but the official language is English, as noted by Bondarevski in End Run, when talking about the endless reports whatshisface the commodore (I forget, and don't have my copy of ER handy... O'Brian? :confused: ) required.
 
It's O'Brian. I think it's mentioned in End Run that his first language is Russian, or whatever form of it they use on his homeworld.
 
language and subdialects

I can't remember details from when I read the books but since the Kilrathi are (to a fair degree) based on the Kzinti (of the Larry Nivens Man-Kzin Wars series) they would probably share a degree of the language sub-types.

Unless your specifically trying to mention it in a story/fanfic for talking bits, most people generally leave this kind of thing out and/or write it off as "best translation for alien speech parts" or "correct dialect and tones not used for simplicity of reading"

each major clan has its own slightly different dialect

also there are sub-dialects depending on the situation, who the speaker is, etc

---DIALECTS---
-self to royalty/nobility
-self to religious (example: talking to a Priest of the Fanged God, Priestess of Sivar, etc)
-self to superior (by military or social rank)
-self to inferior (by military or social rank)
-self to crowd (example; group briefings, various meetings, etc)
-self to other-clan/non-kilrathi/outsiders/dishonored ones/nameless ones/prisoners/slaves/etc

---TONES---
-tone of equals (rarely used... examples; Thrakhath to his sister, two captains of equal rank, etc)
-questioning tone (nearly identical to insulting tone)
-insulting tone
-mocking tone (used for insults)
-respectful tone
-imperative tone (typically used when giving orders)

---SUB LANGUAGES---
-Female's Tongue (used by semi-sentient kzinti females and for ordering them around, may be a version that the fully-sentient kilrathi females among the Sutagi Clan
-- not sure I spelled the clan name right... its the one major clan that's mostly females
and mostly Priestesses of Sivar)
-Slave's Tongue (used by slaves since they can't pronounce the "heroes tongue" very well)
 
I'm not even sure what "semi-sentient" is supposed to mean, but Kilrathi females are fully sentient.
 
Emmm...
Who are those "semi-sentient kzinti females"? Never had heard of them...

In the Man-Kzin wars novel series (which apparently influenced the Kilrathi development), the females of the feline adversaries (the Kzinti) are just there for breeding children and are not really sentient (though they were it once before) like the males.

The Kilrathi females are nothing like that.
 
I can't remember details from when I read the books but since the Kilrathi are (to a fair degree) based on the Kzinti (of the Larry Nivens Man-Kzin Wars series) they would probably share a degree of the language sub-types.

The *look* of the Kilrathi was (supposedly) taken from the Kzinti - their culture was not (it owes a lot more to Imperial Japan).

Lest we forget, the Kzinti didn't even *have* the elaborate culture you're referring to in 1989. Even if the Kilrathi were part-and-parcel Kzin, they'd be the Kzinti of Ringworld, Star Trek, The Warriors and a Beowulf Schaeffer story or two... not the ones we know today from several dozen Kzin-specific stories.
 
OT; just making reference

I know it's kind of off topic... but I used it to show that even within a "unified single-species empire" like the Kilrathi that there is bound to be numerous dialects and different tones of voice and so on.

Just cause it doesn't show up in the WC games/novels doesn't mean it isn't there to a large degree. I mean if you weren't a kilrathi expert, and they (game-maker/novelist) didn't throw in a some 7+ page species-specific to the game/novel, you'd be sitting there wondering what the hell the narrator was talking about if he referred to someone talking in the "mocking tone" or the "slaves tongue". A lot of it is streamlining to make the game/novel (and movie) run more smoothly.

Nivens and company did a good job in several of the more recent Man-Kzin Wars books (I loved Destiny's Forge. It really shows you what KzinHome is like and their "natural" history and evolution was like before they went all space-empire-crazy).

I mean you can't understand a kzin from just a few paragraphs here and there over a 200 page novel. Ringworld does a lot more, but Destiny's Forge really gets you into their shoes, er, fur, as a human diplomat stuck on KzinHome with an on-the-run Patriarch during a civil war.

Same goes for the Kilrathi. You have to sit down and think things through ahead of time. Any kind of game/novel/fanfic involving them requires you to re-evaluate any Kilrathi action/reaction/choice/movement and try to understand it from a non-human perspective.

Species differences aside, I'd highly recommend Destiny's Forge to anyone who wants to get a far better insight into a honorable warrior-cat type alien's mindset. You'll read through it, smack your head, and go "I get it now! That's what's missing from my own story! (or rpg/whatever)That's why so many are saying my own Kilrathi don't quite seem right!"
 
Having only read Ringworld and a couple other short stories in that universe, does Destiny's Forge stand alone without having first read any of the other wartime novels?
 
Destiny's Forge

Having only read Ringworld and a couple other short stories in that universe, does Destiny's Forge stand alone without having first read any of the other wartime novels?

Destiny's Forge can be read on its own without a knowledge of their story/history/universe. There is bout a 4 page foreward with a quick history and then they delve more into it as they set up the story for the diplomat's mission over the first few chapters.
 
Seems like the last two Kzin novels haven't been translated into German yet but I prefer reading them in English anyway. I'll be sure to check it out.
 
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