Re: Gender

On Tuesday 04 December 2001 21:18,  Jörg Rhiemeierwrote:

> Nur-ellen, in contrast, is better off (as well as its yet unborn
> sister languages).  Besides the masculine (_so_) and feminine
> (_se_) pronouns, there is an epicene animate pronoun _sa_, the use
> of which to refer to humans of unspecified or unknown gender is
> perfectly normal (unlike English "it", which carries a connotation
> of "thing" rather than "person"); indeed, the "default" gender in
> Nur-ellen is epicene. (There is yet a different inanimate pronoun.)
>  The plural has no gender distinction other than animate/inanimate.
Ilaini has masculine, feminine, epicene and neuter pronouns in the
singular, dual and plural.

Epicene (I used to call this "common" but I like "epicene" better) is
default for animates, neuter for inanimates; masculine is only used
for one specific male or a group composed of only males (and feminine
ditto for females). When talking about someone whose gender is
unknown or irrelevant, like an as-yet-unborn baby or a carpenter you
want to call in to fix your door, or for a mixed group, use the
epicene. It's also used for animals, unless you're planning to breed
them :-)

Only things are ever "it".

   Irina

--
irina@valdyas.org                        http://www.valdyas.org/irina
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