kofe

[Alina Israeli]

>Then again, this is Moscow, where it is now considered acceptable to order
>"odno kofe."

And it should be, morphologically speaking. It's not like KOFE has a
gender, like shimpanze. KOFE has had a strange fate, from kofij to kofe
with its illogical gender. The only thing that supports masculine gender is
the diminutive kofeek, probably based on kofij.

Some time in the 60's or early 70's, when the fashion started, people were
polled and already then 50% used neuter gender and 50% used masculine. Now
grandchildren of those polled have come of age.

There are words that changed gender and occasionally morphology ro
accomodate the change. But then coffee was not popular in Russia until the
Soviet Union began making friends in Africa and Latin America in the 60's.

Dictionaries occasionally are very stubborn in not admitting change. Case
in point - odolzhit'. They still mention only the meaning of 'dat' vzajmy'.
Meanwhile four generations of educated Russians have used it meaning
'vzjat' vzajmy' and would not know any different unless they spend a lot of
time reading dictionaries.

__________________________
 Alina Israeli
 LFS, American University
 4400 Mass. Ave., NW
 Washington, DC 20016

 phone:    (202) 885-2387
 fax:      (202) 885-1076

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