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

From:John Cowan <jcowan@...>
Date:Tuesday, November 11, 2003, 22:07
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). -- Verbogeny is one of the pleasurettes John Cowan <jcowan@...> of a creatific thinkerizer. http://www.reutershealth.com -- Peter da Silva http://www.ccil.org/~cowan

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Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>