[Lexicog] gendered language references

[Fritz Goerling]

Ken,

 

I don't like the "grammatical gender" argument either when it is used to
support ideology. It often falls totally flat in German, a language which
has arbitrary grammatical gender assigned to words, which I as a native
speaker of German cannot even explain. What makes sense to me is, however,
Muttersprache/mother tongue, as it is from our mothers from whom we learn
our language first as a rule.

 

Fritz

What I meant by "striking" is the strong evidence such words provide that
grammatical gender has little to do with ideology. The association between
"father" and country and between "mother" and language must find its
explanation elsewhere.

--Ken

Fritz Goerling <Fritz_Goerling at sil.org> wrote:

Ken, I find nothing striking about that in the same way as I do not find it
striking that German "Vaterland" has "Vater" (= father) and "Land" (neuter
gender).

 

Fritz

 

Ken Hill wrote:

Grammatical gender is an insufficient expla! nation. I find it striking that
in Spanish, the word for "fatherland" is grammatically feminine: la patria.
Patria is a Latin word derived from pat(e)r 'father' + the feminine
derivational suffix -ia.

--Ken




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