Alien(?) biology

[kengr]

Playing around with an idea for a humanoid race. May be related to humans. Or maybe not.

I'm deliberately obscuring some stuff just to see what people make of them.

While humans are (mostly) described as "man" or "woman", things are a bit more complex for them.

There's a "base" term thon. There are three modifiers. a prefix, nur- and two suffixes -et and -in.

All are born thon. At some point (usually but not always at adolescence) some become thonin, others become thonet. And some remain thon.

Later in life, thonin can become nurthonin. Likewise, thonet can become nurthonet, though this is rarer. And thon can become nurthon if necessary.

Nurthon can go further to become nurthonin or nurthonet if there's a need.

Finally, on rare occasions other transitions are possibly.

thonin -> thoninet
thonet -> thonetin

likewise
nurthonin -> nurthoninet
nurthonet -> nurthonetin

Perfectly normal for them, somewhat confusing to humans.

Oh yes, they consider men to be thonet, and women to be nurthonin.

I'm curious to see if anybody figures out what nur-, -in and -et represent.