3. ✏️ Syrakian Pronouns

Content

Syrakians are a post-human civilization, and their real mode of communication is not fully understandable by the human brain. Even when they are individualized enough to be perceived as characters the reader can follow, the safest default is to treat their language as gender-neutral. In the book, however, they may still use he and she when they are operating through human bodies, because those bodies carry human social legibility.

Thus, syrakis (mostly) don’t refer among themselves using gender pronouns, but syrakian pronouns (Keri Hulme's gender-neutral pronouns) as in the following manner:

| He is laughing | I called him | His eyes gleam | That is his | He likes himself | | --------------- | ------------ | -------------- | ------------ | ----------------- | | She is laughing | I called her | Her eyes gleam | That is hers | She likes herself | | Ve is laughing | I called ver | Vis eyes gleam | That is vis | Ve likes verself |

Anyway, they also use traditional gender pronouns interchangeably, accordingly to the syraki’s replacer.