Gallifreyan Linguistics - Tumblr Posts

thinking again about the idea that gallifreyan would have temporal pronouns that references an individual time lord ‘in general’ as opposed to referencing a specific rengeneration. and how the gallifreyan language probably has complex verb tenses or conjugations around not when events take place in the timestream but also tenses relating to where two time lords are in relation to each other.

in this vein, i love the idea that gallifreyan has three conjugations or words for the concept of “i can’t do or tell you that”:

“i am physically unable to do that / I don’t have the info you need”

“i am choosing to withhold this information and/or not do this / i promised i would not do or reveal this”

“i cannot tell you or do this because it would violate the laws of time / it gives you too much foreknowledge / it’s likely to cause a paradox”

while #1 and #2 can intersect, it makes sense to me that #3 would be its own separate concept or word. that it’s not just that you’re choosing to withhold something: you are bound by the laws of time to withhold it. you may badly, desperately, want to help this person change their future, but you know doing so could cause incredible damage to the timestream. “i’m so sorry. if it were up to me, i would tell you, but the universe won’t allow me to say.”