Last night I heard an interview with David Crystal on BBC Radio 4's Front Row.
The programme has not made it onto the BBC website yet but should appear eventually http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/frontrow/. The reason for the interview was that it has been agreed that ships will no longer have female names. I'm not sure who did the agreeing as I can't find a report in the press but I'll post a link below if I find one.
I noted that cyclones crossed the gender boundary some years ago - used to all be female.
Sheesh - you give them the vote and it's the beginning of the end.
Oh, is that the time, must go - bye-ee! [hurried departure -e]
stales
Historically, the word ship was neuter in English. Boat apparently was either feminine or masculine but depending on what I do not know.
Boat apparently was either feminine or masculine but
depending on what I do not know.
Since it was boot in Middle English, I assume a derivation from German. Which gender is it there?
At first I thought this thread was about a British peer with diarrhea - things that pass in the knight, you know...
"Das" is neuter.
Why *do* they call this taxon gender?
I always thought it was strange that the Latin "hasta" (spear) was feminine and the German "Das Mädchen" (girl) was neuter.
k
In German it is neuter. One of the few words of those that are cognate in English and German in which the gender is/(was in the case of English) different. Of thirty-four randomly selected words only three were clearly of different gender in Modern German and Old English.
Regarding tropical storms being given female names up until a few years ago; storm is/(was) masculine.
Why *do* they call this taxon gender?
Historically, gender had nothing to do with sex. The two concepts have become conflated in Modern English but in some languages the genders are, e.g., long thin objects, flat round objects, etc. In some languages nouns of different genders have different number names used when counting them.
The IE root is a word meaning to give birth, beget, but the meaning had shifted to kind before it came to be applied to the grammatical concept. Das Mädchen is neuter because all diminutive words are neuter in German.
Historically, gender had nothing to do with sex.
Okay. I need to cogitate on this one for a while.
k
storm names
Hurricanes were traditionally given women's names at first because of those storms' notorious unpredictability (i.e.: indecisiveness), under the old *cliché that women are more unpredictable and indecisive than men. Of course, Hurricane David was a classic storm of historic proportions!...So much so that the name has been retired from the hurricane name-sheet, as is the custom with all historic storms. So, Davids of the board, our hurricane is immortal! (YCLIU) [strutting-in-pride-with-a-wink-e]
Last night I heard an interview with David Crystal on BBC Radio 4's Front Row. The programme has not made it onto the BBC website yet but should appear eventually http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/frontrow/. The reason for the interview was that it has been agreed that ships will no longer have female names. I'm not sure who did the agreeing as I can't find a report in the press but I'll post a link below if I find one.
Yeah, Jo, but I done heard on Radio 2 tonight that the Navy has told 'em where to stick their neutered ships ...
