Re: OT: Corpses, etc. (was: Re: Gender in conlangs (was: Re: Umlauts (was Re: Elves and Ill Bethisad)))

Quoting John Cowan <jcowan@...>:

> Andreas Johansson scripsit:
>
> > BTW, this is, in my 'lect, pretty much the only place outside of pronouns
> > where the three n-genders differ. I'm still waiting for a good explanation
> > away of that masculine -e from those who want to describe Swedish as
> having
> > only two genders ("t" and "n").
>
> Okay, so they're relic forms.  Languages are full of these ("grammars leak",
> as Sapir said): in English, there is case, which exists only in pronouns;
> and the subjunctive, which is distinct only in one verb (guess which one).
But I've never heard anyone deny there is a case distinction between "I"
and "me", nor have anyone ever tried to convince me that _I was_ vs _I were_
is not a distinction of mood, whereas I've been told many time that outside of
pronouns, Swedish has only two genders.

                                                           Andreas