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Re: A break in the evils of English (or, Sturnan is beautiful)

From:Christian Thalmann <cinga@...>
Date:Tuesday, April 30, 2002, 22:56
--- In conlang@y..., Balazs Sudar <conlang@P...> wrote:

> > (hängt davon ab, ob "mailbox" weiblich oder männlich übersezt würde :-) > > Fremdwörter sind neutral in Deutsch, abgesehen von einigen Ausnahmen.
It so happens that "Mailbox" has been imported as a feminine noun, since the German words for "box" (Kiste, Schachtel) are feminine too. In fact, if there is a clear German gloss for the imported word, the import often inherits the gender of the gloss. Thus we get "das Skateboard" (das Rollbrett), "die Power" (die Macht/Kraft/Leistung), "der Printer" (der Drucker), "die Disc" (die Scheibe), "der Joystick" (der Steuerknüppel) etc... Then again, this recipe sometimes produces words that don't feel right to me: "der Beach" (der Strand) or "das Rifle" (das Gewehr) should both be feminine according to my gut feeling. Maybe the not quite accurate glosses "die Küste" and "die Knarre/Flinte" would be justification enough. Can any German expert enlighten us about the workings behind the genderization of imported nouns? -- Christian Thalmann

Reply

John Cowan <jcowan@...>German noun genderization