[Lexicog] Gender: Crazy English and the awful German language

[Fritz Goerling]

In Richard Lederer's "Crazy English" )(Pocket Books, New York) 
the author wonders:

"Why is it that a woman can man a station but a man can't
woman one, that a man can father a movement but a woman 
can't mother one, and that a king rules a kingdom but a queen
doesn't rule a queendom? How did all those Renaissance men 
reproduce when there don't seem to have been any Renaissance
women." 

Concerning German he refers to Mark Twain's essay "The Awful German
language" where Twain spoofs the confusion engendered by German
gender by translating literally from a conversation in a German
Sunday school book: "GRETCHEN. Wilhelm, where is the turnip?
WILHELM. She has gone to the kitchen. GRETCHEN. Where is
the accomplished and beautiful English maiden? WILHELM. It has
gone to the opera." Twain continues: "A tree is male, its buds are
female, its leaves are neuter; horses are sexless, dogs are male, 
cats are female - tomcats included."

Well, seen from the outside I can understand why foreigners say
that my mother tongue German is hard to learn, just in the area 
of gender alone.

Other languages have other irregularities in the area of gender
which defy logic? As I am collecting funny examples like those 
from English and German respectively, I would be grateful for
examples from other languages.

Fritz Goerling

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