Someone writing for the New York Times has got their knickers in a twist about gender in language in general and French in particular.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/16/opin ... ctionfront
The Times (perhaps wisely) has not enabled comments for this piece, but I would have liked to direct people's attention to Dr. Goodword's comments on grammatical gender and how it should not be (dare I say it) politicised. See "He, She, It and They" in Dr Goodword's Office
https://www.alphadictionary.com/article ... gular.html
Although masculine, feminine and neuter are widely used terms for a system of noun categories in Indo-European languages, there are in fact other ways to split things up. Although no one actually knows, Wikipedia says expert opinion holds that Proto-Indo-European probably had two genders: animate and neuter. On the other hand, Bantu languages (e.g. Swahili) have 20 noun classes that function as gender classes do in European languages.
Gender Studies
- Slava
- Great Grand Panjandrum
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Re: Gender Studies
Here's a new addition to the question of gender in language: https://theweek.com/articles/740076/how ... der-issues
I seem to remember from high school days thinking it odd that in French shirt is feminine while blouse is masculine.
I seem to remember from high school days thinking it odd that in French shirt is feminine while blouse is masculine.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.
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