Gender of Russian loan words

[Francoise Rosset]

On Mon, 11 May 2009 05:59:09 +0400
  Irina Shevelenko <ishevelenko at MAIL.RU> wrote:
> Annie,
> 
> Loan nouns which end on a consonant or short 'i' are masculine; loan 
>nouns which end on -a or -ia are feminine, unless they are proper 
>names of men. Loan words which end on -o, -e or have other endings 
>which do not conform to any Nominative Singular type of Russian nouns 
>are neuter, unless they designate animated creatures. E.g., 'taksi' 
>is neuter, but 'kolibri' (a bird) is not: it is feminine, because it 
>is "ptitsa". It is more tricky with 'kenguru', though, since there is 
>no generic group to which we can assign the word; the gender of this 
>word fluctuates, but the tendency is to consider it masculine, unless 
>we want to emphasize the sex of the animal. A recent notable 
>exception from the rule outlined about is, of course, 'evro' (a 
>currency), which became masculine soon after its introduction into 
>the language.
> 

I was taught that kofe is masculine (while kafe is neuter).
It's supposed to "chernyi kofe," although I've heard that in very 
recent usage this too has become unstable.
Any confirmation either way?

Also, what gender is assigned to a city whose name ends in -o, -e, or 
even u (Timbuktu, Baku)? What about countries (Mali, Togo, Peru)?
-FR

Francoise Rosset, Associate Professor
Chair, Russian and Russian Studies
Coordinator, German and Russian
Wheaton College
Norton, Massachusetts 02766
Office: (508) 285-3696
FAX:   (508) 286-3640

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