txakur/dzhagaru/cachorro....

[Renato Piva]

Diogo Almeida schrieb:

>> From: Rick Mc Callister <rmccalli at sunmuw1.MUW.Edu>
>> Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2001 14:41:17 -0500

>> [DGK]
>>> Does anyone know why <leche> is feminine?

>> There is a group of Latin neuters that became feminine in Spanish &
>> Portuguese and masculine in French and Italian.

The word for milk was feminine in my dialect (Venetian terraferma, province of
Vicenza, Italy) at least until two generations ago. My grandmother (born 1899)
used to say 'la late', but I say 'el late', and so says my mother/her daughter.
I don' t know what dialectal forms may be found in the Atlas of the Italian
dialects by Jaberg & Jud, as I have no access to the University library for the
moment. But I'm sure that the situation in Italy is (or once was) a bit more
complicated than it seems as compared with the simple statement  that 'latin
neutra became masculine in Italian'. I  too would tend to maintain, as has
already been pointed out in this discussion, that the gender was influenced by
the fact that it is always the female that gives milk. But in the special case
of  Venetian terraferma one should also take into consideration that there was
some influence from German for some time, which I think hasn't been studied
toroughly enough, yet. And in German, 'Milch' is of feminine gender.

Regards,
Renato Piva