Re: Father/Motherland

On Last Water of Tenderness, Pablo wrote:

> Carlos Eugenio Thompson (EDC) <EDCCET@...> wrote:
>
> >In Spanish the word is _patria_ with shows it relationship with _padre_
> >(father).  Then I thing it could count as a fatherland language.
>
> Yes, but _patria_ is feminine, and it's also common to say
> _la madre patria_. There's no masculine equivalent (_país
> natal_ could be, but it's much weaker).
Well, but remember that besides human beings, grammatical gender in Spanish
has little to do with sex (and "un mujerón" is gramatically masculine but
biologicaly female, then...).  I would translate "patria" as either
motherland or fatherland and "la madre patria" would be something as "the
mother fatherland"... well, I would just translated as "motherland".

Worth noting English related word "patriot" for someone who loves his/her
motherland and supports its interests.  (Same as "patriota" in Spanish...
one of those words that end in -a but are either masculine or femenine.)

-- Carlos Th