Re: Writing Systems and Biscriptal Children

On Wed, 1 Dec 1999, andrew wrote:

>Am 11/30 17:08  nicole perrin yscrifef:
>
>> So, obligatory conlang reference:  those of you who do have gender in
>> your language, is it masc/fem? and are masculine nouns more powerful?
Powerful!?  That's a curious idea!  Physically powerful or otherwise?

>Brithenig is masc/fem.  A quick skim down the first 120 nouns of my
>working lexicon revealed that gender allocation to nouns is equally
>balanced.  Abstract endings and verbal nouns tend to favour feminine but
>these are a very small minority.  I guess that where natural gender is
>concerned masculine forms predominate (chauvainism!), but gramatical
For what it's worth, I think a number of these could be considered
"common gender", since the roles can be taken as either m. or f.
Most of these words are marked masc. in the dictionary (but I wouldn't
hesitate to use lla failidur (manager) where appropriate.  Some are
marked common (antegessur, ancestor) where I truly thought it best.

Especially since there is no way of divining gender from the noun, the
inherent or gramatical gender seems rather a purist (though not a
bad!) notion - It's just like the etymology/spelling reform thread
going on: the Brithenig article points the astute speaker to more
ancient forms of the noun, but does little to inform the mob.

>gender is equally divided with some important words being feminine.  The
>impersonal pronouns commonly default on the feminine, (sa, 'she', and a,
>'that.f').  The exception is yno, 'one' which is derived from yn of, 'a
>man'.
>
>I find gramatical gender a pleasing part of Brithenig
Agreed.  It's also historically accurate - it _is_ a Romance language,
after all!

>and I would probably incorporate it in future language projects.
I've always used gender in some way or another.  Kernu has m./f.;
Tallarian has animate/inanimate; Arrana has a kind of optional gender
system that isn't necessary for language function.

Padraic.

>
>- andrew.
>--
>Andrew Smith, Intheologus                       hobbit@earthlight.co.nz
>
>                      "Piskie, Piskie, say Amen
>                   Doon on your knees and up agen."
>
>                    "Presbie, Presbie, dinna bend;
>                   Sit ye doon on mon's chief end."
>                               - Attributions unknown.
>