Question regarding Grammatical Gender vs. Biological Gender in Russian

[Alina Israeli]

One should not think of -a decletion as "feminine". Practically all  
masculine name have a diminutive in -a, exceptions exist, but they are  
rare. Even names like Oleg have Olezhka (pronounced [Aleshka],  
commonly misidentified, even in some textbooks). Otherwise Коля, Вася,  
Петя, Серёжа, Алеша, Валера, Витя, Гриша, Женя, Саша, Боря, Вова,  
Дима, Валя etc. How's that "feminine" if 98% of the male population's  
name belong here?

The exceptions are names like Стас, Денис (although Дениска in  
childhood), and maybe a few others.

Even in some rare names we find a way:

Муля, не нервируй меня: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHFTGwgODz0

скрипач еврейский Моня: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR-dOjXwZkM


Jun 15, 2011, в 6:50 PM, Emily Saunders написал(а):

> Hello,
>
> I thought I'd throw this question out to the SEELANGS wealth of  
> expertise.  Masculine nouns occasionally end in -a or -я in names  
> like Ваня, Миша, and in words like дедушка, папа, дядя.  And  
> necessarily these take feminine declensional endings in spite of the  
> underlying biological masculine gender.  My question is whether  
> anyone can think of any *inanimate* masculine nouns that end in -a/- 
> я (if there are any)?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Emily Saunders
>
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Alina Israeli
Associate Professor of Russian
LFS, American University
4400 Massachusetts Ave.
Washington DC 20016
(202) 885-2387 	fax (202) 885-1076
aisrael at american.edu

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