Genders was Re: I'm back

Nik Taylor nevesht:
>
>Julia "Schnecki" Simon wrote:
>>Now I'm looking into noun class systems. I'm envisioning a system with
>>a handful of inflectional classes and a somewhat larger number of noun
>>classes; each noun would be assigned to a certain inflectional class
>>based on its phonetic structure, and to a certain noun class based on
>>its meaning.
>
>Cool.  Genders can be fun.  :)  My Uatakassi has 7 genders in the standard
>dialect.  Sentient Female, Sentient Male, Sentient Epicene, Animals
>associated with people [domesticated animals and certain agricultural
>pests], animals not associated with people, other animate, inanimate.  The
>distinction between the last two is somewhat vague. Gold is animate, copper
>is not, for example.  :) Things that can move on their own, like wind and
>fire and insects, are considered animate, while things that do no are often
>- but not always - considered inanimate. Nouns referring to social/cultural
>entities are animate (e.g., "language", "word", "city", "law")
One of my languages(as of yet unnamed), has 5 genders,
1: sacred/divine, rituals, ritual implements, priests, smiths, weather,
bards
2: dangerous things, wild fire, adult males of respected tribes, poisonous
things, weapons
3: edible things, beverages
4: domestic things, households, pets women, children, etc.
5: everything else

Lisanek, masculine/feminine
masculine: default for human, male animals, inanimates
feminine: female human, default for animals, animate and abstract

Lisa`nre: animate, inanimate
animate: human, animals, personified abstaractions, spirits,
books/stoies/songs, named places
inanimate: things, etc.

-Wayne Chevrier