<div style="text-align: center; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">=========================================================================<br>L O W L A N D S - L - 08 July 2008 - Volume 03<br style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">
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<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="HcCDpe"><span class="EP8xU" style="color: rgb(0, 104, 28);">jonny</span> <span class="lDACoc"><<a href="mailto:jonny.meibohm@arcor.de">jonny.meibohm@arcor.de</a>></span></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Subject: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="HcCDpe">LL-L "Grammar"<br><br></span><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span>Beste Lowlanners
abroad,</span></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span></span> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span>how do you in
English use the gender of the word <strong>_person_</strong> <em>(neuter)</em>
in the following context?</span></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span></span> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span>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?</span></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span>"I saw a tall
<strong>person</strong> 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.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span>(If I would replace
_person_ by 'individual' my problem wouldn't be solved!)</span></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span></span> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span><span>In Low Saxon we have got the
same problem: "Ick hebb eyn' Perzoun seyhn <em>(we like to avoid past tense,
because present and past tense, as in this case, often sound
identically!)</em> mit eyn' swatten Hout un' eyn' griesen Mantel.
<strong>De</strong> loyp linkerhand de Stroat hendaol." <u>'de'</u> denotes
masculine as well as female, but in LS 'Perzoun' (like in 'dat Manns-Perzoun' or
'dat Frouwens-Perzoun') is neuter, so correctly it <u>should</u> be 'dat'. I
guess it to be influenced by Standard German.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span><span></span></span> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span> In German all
nouns have a clear gender, which have grammatically to be used straight: "Ich
sah ein<u><strong>e</strong></u> Person <em>(fem.)</em> mit schwarzem Hut und
grauem Mantel. <strong><u>Sie</u></strong> 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<strong><u>a</u></strong>'.)</span></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span>Though- many
speakers would say: "Mir kam <strong><u>das</u></strong> kleine Mädchen
auf dem Fahrrad irgendwie seltsam vor. <strong><u>Sie</u></strong> sah so
ganz anders aus als ihre Freundinnen." ("The little girl on the bike
appeared somehow strange to me. She looked completely
different from<em>(?)</em> her mates.") '<strong>sie</strong>' is
wrong in this case; it should be '<strong>es</strong>'.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" align="left">Allerbest<span>, and thanks in award!</span></div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" align="left"> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" align="left">Jonny Meibohm</div><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">----------</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><font style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" size="2"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">From: R. F. Hahn <<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank">sassisch@yahoo.com</a>>
<br>
Subject: Grammar<br><br><b><i>Dat</i></b><i> persoon</i>, Jonny?! I say <b><i>dey</i></b><i> persoon</i> and <i>sey</i>, thus make it feminine.<br><br>Besides, it sounds a bit "yellow" to me as well as 19th century to me. <i>Dey minsch</i> (original "human being") would be my choice, a noun with masculine gender, unless it denotes an unpleasant woman, in which case it is neuter (!) <i>dat minsch</i>.<br>
<br>Kumpelmenten,<br>Reinhard/Ron</span></font><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">