Arabic-L:LING:Cross-gender usages

[Dilworth B. Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Mon 19 Feb 2001
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
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1) Subject: Cross-gender usages

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1)
Date: 19 Feb 2001
From: alhawar at american.edu
Subject: Cross-gender usages

>Also, naturally enough[?!],  "the two female ones"  =  al-unthaya:ni =
>"testicles."  Go figure.

>Mike Schub



Better results can be reached when instead focus is on patterns and
rule-governed phenomena rather than "naturalness" in this case. Body
parts is one example that fits into a pattern.  Body parts that come
in pairs are treated as feminine.  Otherwise, singular body parts are
masculine (including those of female and male genitalia), except
surrah "navel" which has the feminine suffix any way. This is perhaps
why ?al-?unthayaan is also used to refer to the two ears (?udhun (Sg)
?udhunaan (pl)).  

Mohammad T. Alhawary

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End of Arabic-L: 19 Feb 2001