Re: gender in indo-european languages

From: Donna Richoux (trio_at_euronet.nl)
Date: 09/27/04 

Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2004 23:38:52 +0200

Harvey Van Sickle <harvey.news@ntlworld.com> wrote:

> On 27 Sep 2004, Skitt wrote
>
> > howard richler wrote:
> >
> >> Unlike in English, most Indo-European languages have gendered
> >> nouns. I'm wondering, does there tend to be consistency in
> >> nouns being nouns being masculine or feminine (or neuter where
> >> applicable) in the various IE languages, or at least consistency
> >> of gender in nouns in the various Romance languages?
> >
> > What sort of consistency do you expect? I don't think there is
> > any.
>
> I don't think he's "expecting" anything at all: it's a straight query
> as to whether words of a given gender in one language tend to have the
> same gender in another, or whether it's random.
>
> For what it's worth, I think's a brilliant question; there's probably
> a thesis on it somewhere...

I thought it was answered in the sci.lang FAQ. It's not, but something
related is discussed:

28 How did genders and cases develop in IE [Indo-European]?
http://www.zompist.com/lang21.html#28 

-- 
Best -- Donna Richoux

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