>Well, we know that Dragaeran third-person >singular pronouns are sometimes non-gender-specific -- that is, there's >a word that means "he or she" -- and I noticed that the passage in FHYA >is unambiguous about their sexes, but the other one is vague, and I >suggested that Brust-the-translator had to guess in the latter case and >guessed wrong. Steve liked that so much he made it the official >explanation. So we can't rely on the gender of an English pronoun. On the point of non-gender specific language: When translating something for me, my grandfather told me that Hungarian is not gender specific as English is, and this makes translation difficult at times (obviously he was translating something gender specific for me). He said that in general the pronouns of he and she, masculine vs. feminine, are non-specific and pretty much nonexistent. I have *extreme* difficulties with foreign language and thus I am not clear on what he meant by this, therefore I will let David Silberstein, as he seems to be excellent with languages, or someone else explain this. I am simply beyond reproach or repair in my inability to learn foreign tongues, and though I understand it in theory, I don't *truly* understand what he meant to the point I could put it into simple thought. However, Mark, your comment reminded me of what he said, and it does sort of correspond with what we know about the non-gender specific narration taking place in FYA and SKZB's books at large. Though the Mr. Brust may be writing in English, perhaps he is literally trying to write as one translating Hungarian/Fennarian/Dragaerean-Dragaeran(sp?). I know it's a long shot and I am totally speculating and emmm, well rambling in my contemplations wherein I have strange thoughts that do not make any sense(I will probably change my mind within the hour), but I thought I would share this ramble while it was rattling and bouncing around in my brain. :) Adieu, Holly _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus