Generic gender titles for the races

[Chongo]

You know, that brings up a good question....
 
 When Anna called her a gnomess, I was wondering - what are the proper names for females of each racial type?  I've always said woman, and when I think it over... that doesn't make sense now does it.

[Link092]

well, Orcess? halflingess? Elfess? Or the best one yet, dwarfette?

[Stephen_Zuckerman]

There are specific terms in each language for the male and female, but in the Common tongue, everyone is an "Elvish man" or "Gnomish woman," or perhaps an "Orcess," or "Halfling, er... Lass."

The elvish term for a "human man" is, literally "human man," like the Common tongue has "Elvish man."

But Common is a really screwed-up amalgam of terms from all sorts of different langauges, so your mileage may vary.

[Rowana]

OOCly at least I have always avoided my descriptors of non-human races being referred to as 'man' or 'woman' as it seems inherently 'human'. "Gnomess" was mostly for fun, but {race} {gender} (i.e. Elvish female) always seemed to be the most appropriate approach from the Common stand point. I'd strongly guess the word for 'woman' in elvish actually means 'female elf,' and then they call the non-races {race} {gender} in their own tongue as well. (also using 'male' rather then 'man' for the other gender I might point out)

My two true...
~row

[oldskooler]

somebody could do a whole book on "gnomenclature"

[merlin34baseball]

The common language grew as what Steven said, a mixture of lots of things to facilitate trade... so the word woman...might not BE woman... but means a female to everyone who speaks common, because well, common isn't english.

I just reread this like five times... and I don't know if I made sense.

Added Link to language history:
http://forums.layonara.com/histories-content/141302-common-language.html

[Gulnyr]

Yeah, that's a good point, Merlin.  Common isn't specific to humans as their language but a mixture of various languages from various races and cultures, so "man" and "woman" can be used as the words for any adult male or female, respectively, since English is what we're using for Common and those are the words it has.  Racial names could be added for clarity, just like any other adjective (blond, fat, etc) - "Ask the elven woman in the lobby," rather than just "Ask the woman in the lobby."

That doesn't mean we can't invent new words for specific people, just that "man" and "woman" are the general terms for any race's adult males and females.