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Re: Homosexuality and gender identity

From:Joe <joe@...>
Date:Tuesday, May 27, 2003, 20:56
----- 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.