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Re: CONLANG Digest - 5 Sep 2000 to 6 Sep 2000 (#2000-243)

From:Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...>
Date:Friday, September 8, 2000, 1:42
Matt McLauchlin wrote:
> That was the key... whenever people start talking about gender in English > and relating it to things in French or German or whatnot, I have to sigh and > explain the difference between natural and grammatical gender again...
I'm not so sure that that is a fundamental difference. English has gramaticalized gender. It just happens that it's highly predictable, while in French or German the predictability is low. There's a whole range of languages from the completely predictable (English coming very close to that) to very arbitrary (French and German coming pretty close to that). -- "Only two things are infinite - the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein ICQ: 18656696 AIM Screen-Name: NikTailor