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 ’-san’ versus ’-sensei’ though I don’t know how broadly ‘sensei’ is used outside of doctors and teachers? Anyway I’d really be interested in any rambling about titles or honorific suffixes you might have :) all I can think of is ’-lin’ for an endearment of sorts (if I’m remembering *that* right, haha).
Hiya! Thanks for this lovely PM–and good on you for remember that I (Vyc) am on-and-off studying Japanese!
You’re right in that Kardasi currently only has -lin as a honourific suffix. Most of its honourific words are appended to the front of a person’s name like in English. There’s also i’, an honourific prefix that I neglected to add to the dictionary.
Here’s 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)
te’alakec (teacher)
peld’kec (professor, rendered as “Inquisitor” by the Universal Translator)
garac (approximately a defence attorney, rendered as “Nestor” by the Universal Translator)
ja-ketUntgat (prefect)
ja-kal-jonak (chief magistrate)
kal-jonak (magistrate, rendered as “Archon” by the Universal Translator)
ketUntgat (provincial leader of Kardassia’s colonies, rendered as “Exarch” by the Universal Translator)
kUruntefkec (approximately a prosecutor)
And the military ranks, which I’m still pinning down but are currently:
jagat (rendered as “Legate” 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 didn’t make the dictionary, as I’m thinking about making a separate document for specifically cultural words and concepts that don’t translate easily out of Kardasi.
As for how you’d 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 i’ with civilian titles, like i’kal-jonak, or “Madame Archon” in the episode “Tribunal.”
Will there be more honourific suffixes? Probably! @tinsnip and I just haven’t discussed them yet.
Hope this helps!