LL-L "Grammar" 2008.07.08 (03) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 08 July 2008 - Volume 03
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From: jonny <jonny.meibohm at arcor.de>
Subject: LL-L "Grammar"

Beste Lowlanners abroad,

how do you in English use the gender of the word *_person_* *(neuter)* in
the following context?

Just imagine, you watched a person which (or who?) is suspected to have been
involved in a crime. Because it was dark, you could not see, if it had
been a man or a woman. How do you tell it the police constable?
"I saw a tall *person* with a black hat and a grey coat. (_He_? _She_?
_It_?) ran down the street to the left side." It should be 'it', I guess?
But it sounds in a certain way strange for me.
(If I would replace _person_ by 'individual' my problem wouldn't be solved!)

In Low Saxon we have got the same problem: "Ick hebb eyn' Perzoun seyhn *(we
like to avoid past tense, because present and past tense, as in this
case, often sound identically!)* mit eyn' swatten Hout un' eyn' griesen
Mantel. *De* loyp linkerhand de Stroat hendaol." *'de'* denotes masculine as
well as female, but in LS 'Perzoun' (like in 'dat Manns-Perzoun' or 'dat
Frouwens-Perzoun') is neuter, so correctly it *should* be 'dat'. I guess it
to be influenced by Standard German.

 In German all nouns have a clear gender, which have grammatically to be
used straight: "Ich sah ein*e* Person *(fem.)* mit schwarzem Hut und grauem
Mantel. *Sie* lief nach links die Straße hinab." (Don't ask me, why a
_Person_ in German is of female gender! Ladies first? I guess it is
deriving from Latin 'person*a*'.)
Though- many speakers would say: "Mir kam *das* kleine Mädchen auf dem
Fahrrad irgendwie seltsam vor. *Sie* sah so ganz anders aus als ihre
Freundinnen." ("The little girl on the bike appeared somehow strange to me.
She looked completely different from*(?)* her mates.") '*sie*' is wrong in
this case; it should be '*es*'.

Allerbest, and thanks in award!

Jonny Meibohm

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Grammar

*Dat** persoon*, Jonny?! I say *dey** persoon* and *sey*, thus make it
feminine.

Besides, it sounds a bit "yellow" to me as well as 19th century to me. *Dey
minsch* (original "human being") would be my choice, a noun with masculine
gender, unless it denotes an unpleasant woman, in which case it is neuter
(!) *dat minsch*.

Kumpelmenten,
Reinhard/Ron
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