The language spoken on Anarres, which is free of any possessive language. For instance, an Anarresti would never say “my head hurts”; they would say “the head hurts.”
Pravic Quotes in The Dispossessed
The The Dispossessed quotes below are all either spoken by Pravic or refer to Pravic. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 2
Quotes
“Take care in Abbenay. Keep free. Power inheres in a center. You’re going to the center. I don’t know Sabul well; I know nothing against him; but keep this in mind; you will be his man.”
The singular forms of the possessive pronoun in Pravic were used mostly for emphasis; idiom avoided them. Little children might say “my mother,” but very soon they learned to say “the mother.” Instead of “my hand hurts,” it was “the hand hurts me,” and so on; to say “this one is mine and that’s yours” in Pravic, one said, “I use this one and you use that.” Mitis’s statement, “You will be his man,” had a strange sound to it. Shevek looked at her blankly.
Related Characters:
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Explanation and Analysis:
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Pravic Term Timeline in The Dispossessed
The timeline below shows where the term Pravic appears in The Dispossessed. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...hand, hoping aloud that the two will meet him again. Shevek calls Kimoe “brother” in Pravic, only realizing after the doctor has left that Kimoe does not understand the Anarresti language.
(full context)
Chapter 2
...with Beshun, reflects on the lack of “proprietary idioms for the sexual act” in the Pravic language. Sex and intimacy are not about “having” or “owning,” he thinks, as no one...
(full context)
...mind that if he goes to study with Sabul, he will become “his man.” In Pravic, possessive pronouns are used infrequently, and Shevek notes that Mitis’s use of the words “his...
(full context)
Chapter 4
...in order to read the major works of Urrasti physics—no one has translated them into Pravic yet. Sabul hands Shevek a book of Ioti grammar and an Ioti dictionary, and the...
(full context)
...Sabul holds out a book to Shevek—it is Shevek’s critique of Atro’s work, retranslated into Pravic and credited to both Shevek and Sabul. Shevek is caught off guard and upset that...
(full context)
...him with medicine to bring down his fever. Shevek falls asleep, raving in Iotic and Pravic about physics and time.
(full context)
Chapter 13
...radio to the Syndicate of Initiative back on Anarres, listening and answering their questions in Pravic. After his radio conversation, Shevek tells the Hainish first mate, Ketho, that the Anarresti will...
(full context)
...wonders why anyone is born if not to make each single life new. Shevek, in Pravic, tells Ketho that they are all “children of time.” Calling him brother, he urges Ketho...
(full context)
