Re: What's a gender?

on 12/22/06 3:14 AM, Remi Villatel at maxilys@TELE2.FR wrote:

> On Thursday 21 December 2006 20:50, Eldin Raigmore wrote:
>
>> @Mark: I forgot to mention that "genders" are _obligatory_.  That is,
>> they are concordial noun-classes such that every noun is in one and only
>> one of them, and can't change.
>
> I answer even if this wasn't addressed to me 'cause I liked this part.
>
> My first reaction when I read this: "Hooray! I broke another
> universal!"  ;-)
I don't think this is a universal. There are a number of nouns in Hebrew of
varying gender, e.g., derekh 'way', ruakh 'wind, spirit', maHane 'camp',
shemesh 'sun'.

--
Josh Roth

http://fuscian.freespaces.com/

"Farewell, farewell to my beloved language,
Once English, now a vile orangutanguage."
-Ogden Nash

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