Re: Homosexuality and gender identity

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Cowan" <jcowan@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2003 9:37 PM
Subject: Re: Homosexuality and gender identity


> Andreas Johansson scripsit:
>
> > I usually reach for _Weib_ when I need an example for this. Is there any
> > explanation for this one to be found?
>
> It's Proto-Germanic at least:  _wyf_ 'woman' in OE was also neuter.
> There are no decent cognates in the other IE languages AFAIK, though
> there are a few guesses about possible formal equivalents with drastic
> semantic shifts.
>
OE wíf is neuter - þæt wíf.