Feminines in Neuter Plurals

[iffr762 at utxvms.cc.utexas.edu]

	What exactly is the argument here?  That if the feminine had been
a recent development from the masculine, the masculine plural rather than
the neuter would be used for mixed M/F plurals, therefore the feminine
cannot be a recent development from the masculine?  What if the feminine
is a recent development from the neuter/inanimate?  Very un-PC, I know,
but stranger (and more un-PC) things have happened.  And is it not true
the Conventional Wisdom has the feminine developing from the
neuter/inanimate anyway?  Perhaps I am missing something, but I find it
difficult to understand what is being alledged.

					DLW