Re: Neuter girls (was Re: French)
| From: | Wesley Parish <wes.parish@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Thursday, May 30, 2002, 10:51 |
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On Thu, 30 May 2002 17:07, Jan van Steenbergen wrote:
> --- Raymond Brown wrote:
> > >Same thing in Dutch: all dimunitives are neuter. Don't ask me why...
> >
> > An IE habit, I think. Diminutives were neuter in ancient Greek and their
> > descendants remain neuter, e.g.
>
> This makes me think of something else. When did Latin lose its neuter
> gender? Since none of the Romance languages has it, I would presume that
> Vulgar Latin didn't have it neither.
When did the literati begin confusing the neuter with either feminine or
masculine? That's when it dropped out, as the literati could no longer make
any sense out of the neuter in their teaching texts.
Wesley Parish
>
> A really stupid question, I admit, but it's about time to fill up this
> blank spot in my - generally not-so-bad - education ;)
>
> Jan
>
> =====
> "You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I
> thought, wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible
> things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I
> take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the
> universe." --- J. Michael Straczynski
>
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