R: Re: Father/Motherland

Pablo wrote:

> Carlos Eugenio Thompson (EDC) <EDCCET@...> wrote:
>
> >In Spanish the word is _patria_ with shows it relationship with _padre_
> >(father).  Then I thing it could count as a fatherland language.
>
> Yes, but _patria_ is feminine, and it's also common to say
> _la madre patria_. There's no masculine equivalent (_país
> natal_ could be, but it's much weaker).
>
In Italian we have the same: padre, patria, patria potestà. I don't think
that's a matter of grammatical gender: even German Vaterland is neuter, but
I'd classify it as a fatherland tounge, because of the *meaning* of the
word, not because of its gender.

Luca