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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.
Entire Thread Subject Posted By Posted Ships that pass in the night jmh 03/21/02 08:29 AM Re: Ships that pass in the night stales 03/21/02 01:51 PM Re: Ships that pass in the night hev 03/22/02 01:55 AM Re: Ships that pass in the night Faldage 03/21/02 01:51 PM Re: Ships that pass in the night Geoff 03/21/02 02:26 PM Das Boot TheFallibleFiend 03/21/02 02:53 PM Re: Das Boot Faldage 03/21/02 03:10 PM Re: Das Boot TheFallibleFiend 03/21/02 03:21 PM Re: Das Boot WhitmanO'Neill 03/21/02 04:51 PM Re: Ships that pass in the night Faldage 03/21/02 02:58 PM Re: Ships that pass in the night Capital Kiwi 03/21/02 09:43 PM
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