txakur/dzhagaru/cachorro....

[Eduard Selleslagh]

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Sanchez" <davius_sanctex at terra.es>
Sent: Thursday, February 08, 2001 3:21 AM

> [ Moderator's note:
>   David Sanchez is responding to text quoted from a posting by Kreso Megyeral
>   originally dated 18 Jan 2001.
>   --rma ]

>>> In one Spanish grammar written in Croatian I found that there are still
>>> some words in Spanish considered neuter (of course, not "leche") that
>>> express collectives or some young animals. The article quoted is LO. Is it
>>> indeed, or is it some interpretation of the author?

> Certain neologisms seems to be genuinely neuter gender terms. For example,
> the term <internet> is very resistent to gender assignement:

> 1. Spanish speakers avoid expressions with article like <el internet> / <la
> internet>, the form without ariticle is preferred in all contexts (this is
> very unusual for a noun in Spanish).

> 2. Spanish speakers fluctuate in using feminine or masculine adjectives:
> <internet es divertido> and <internet es divertida> are both common (this is
> also very very unsual for a noun in Spanish).

> this seems to indicate that the term <internet> is not definitively adscribed
> to none gender!

[Ed]

You can't call this 'neuter', because that IS a (grammatical) gender: You can't
say 'lo internet', can you?. What we have here is hesitation when attributing
gender to foreign words, especially English neuters, i.e. all inanimates
(except ships etc.). The same problem arose in an earlier time with 'radio':
now, it is male or female depending on which side of the Atlantic (and how
educated) you are.

The case of '(inter)net' is interesting: the translation is female (la red),
but the original English is a neuter, so it would normally be transferred into
Spanish (or other Latin languages) as masculine. Whence the dilemma and
hesitation.

The case of 'radio' is different: I guess in Spain there was contamination from
French (la radio) while in the Americas the English neuter was the origin/
example (except to followers of the Real Academia de la Lengua).

These two examples show how different environments may change the rules of
ascribing gender to the same foreign word.

Ed Selleslagh