gender in translation

[Michele A. Berdy]

> On the question of sex and grammatical gender, it is sometimes possible to 
> use masculine nouns to refer to women (or female animals), but it is much 
> harder to find examples where the reverse happens.

I got very interested in this at one point and asked a Russian translator 
friend to put together a list of examples from literature of men being 
referred to as mamochka, milasha, golubushka, milochka, etc. and women 
referred to as golubchik, brat, zolotoi, etc. He says that changing the 
gender intensifies the sense of affection and intimacy. (Would you all 
agree?)  I never knew quite what to make of this, and so it remains in a 
file of "topics to figure out some day." I would be very interested in any 
research on the subject.

Here's a related question for the British speakers on the list: in my 
paperback version of Sayer's Gaudy Night, the women students refer to each 
other as Brother So-and-so. But in later editions (it appears), the text was 
corrected to "Oh, bother!" or "Bother!" Does anyone know if British women 
university students (in the 30s?) ever called each other Brother? (I had 
jumped on this as an analagous example in English, but then abandoned it.)

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