[Lexicog] gendered language references

[Hayim Sheynin]

Lieber Herr Fritz,
  
  For the religeous Jews ha-aretz is eretz avot (the country of  forefathers) and they see aliya as return to their historical homeland  (seing the Bible as history).
  For the secular Jews which are the majority of the Jews in recent years this is
  the historical and cultural fatherland.
  When Theodor Herzl, a Hungarian Jew, established his theories of  Zionizm, -- (he worked at the end of 1890s and first years of the 20th  century), -- he first looked for the thecratic principles not because  he himself was a religious Jew (on the contrary he was a secular  European Jew of Austro-Hungarian Empire), but because the Jewish masses  lived "in der tiefer Religiositaet," and he coudn't propagate his vies  other than trough the prism of religion.
  The relation of diaspora Jews to the Holy Land was in great measure  similar to relation of so called Volksdeutsche to German metropolia.  You probably hear about return of Baltic Germans and Volga Germans to  Germany before WWII
  and after the war to their country. And some of them were out of Germany 400 or 200 years.
  To ascribe every Israeli who made aliya only religious impulse is incorrect, but
  some more traditional Jews are doing this because of sincere love to the country
  of forefathers, and they usually idealize it.
  However if you share whatever I am writing with a Rabbi, he would disagree.
  
  Hayim Sheynin
  

Fritz Goerling <Fritz_Goerling at sil.org> wrote:                                                                  
    Hayim,
     
    When God told patriarch Abraham to leave  his country, relatives and his father’s house
    in Gen. 12:1, how is country (erets)  perceived by a native speaker of Hebrew? Is there any idea of “fatherland”  or “motherland” in modern Hebrew? When Jews make Aliya, do they  come back to Israel  just as “ha erets” (as their “homeland”) or to the land  of their fathers?
    Is there any politically correct movement,  like in the anglophone world, among modern Hebrew speakers who avoid talking  about “fathers” and prefer “ancestors?”
     
    Shalom,
     
    Fritz
                Dear Ken,
  
  On the other hand, what is striking that Latin word patria is feminine. If you  can imagine a simile that you country like a mother for you, why patria even it  is derived etimologically from pater, cannot be  feminine.
  The same relates to patrimonia. The problem with gender of these words lie
  not with the language, but rather with the thought. On one hand, you may  explain 
  that patria is the country of your forefathers and  foremothers and  patrimonia  is
  the property (and legacy) of your forefathers and foremothers,  on the  other that
  the roots of these words reflect reality of the patriarchal society, where  fathers were the "top" persons. 
  
  --Hayim Sheynin
  
  "Kenneth C.  Hill" <kennethchill at yahoo.com> wrote:
                Grammatical gender is an insufficient explanation. I find it striking  that in Spanish, the word for "fatherland" is grammatically feminine:  la patria. Patria is a Latin word derived from pat(e)r 'father' + the feminine  derivational suffix -ia.
  
  --Ken
  
  saghar sharifi <saghar_sharifi at yahoo.com>  wrote:
    
                The answer to your question would be that in some languages, as in  German, the word " language " is feminine.
    
         
    
         Leman  <wayne_leman at sil.org> wrote:
    
                I'm wondering about English terms for kinds of languages:
  
  Why do we speak of a mother tongue but not a father tongue?
  
  Why do we speak of sister languages but not brother languages?
  
  Why are there daughter languages but not son languages?
  
  Why can we refer to both a motherland and a fatherland?
  
  Do other languages use kinship terms to refer to language relationships?
  
  Wayne
  -----
  Wayne Leman
  Cheyenne  dictionary online:
  http://www11.asphost4free.com/cheyennedictionary/default.htm
    
    
         
                
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