la leche

[Mate Kapović]

-----Original Message-----
From: Max Dashu <maxdashu at LanMinds.Com>
Date: 2001. veljača 01 13:21

>>>> Why shouldn't a product of the female breast become feminine?

>>> If anything, it's the masculine forms that need explaining.

>What, then, are we to make of a feminine form for "penis" in Greek (i psoli)?

>Max Dashu


If there can be a neuter forms meaning "woman" like German das Weib and Old
Irish bé (< PIE *gwenh2), why shouldn't there be a feminine Greek word for
penis?

Besides, I think it's not at all typologically rare in languages with
grammatical gender to have words for "penis" which are grammatically
feminine. Especially if the words are expressive and not the formal ones
(don't know if the Greek one is). From the top of my head I can think of two
colloquial examples in Croatian which are obviously feminine and mean
"penis" - kita, Cuna (C- with a hook, /ch/).