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Re: OT: Julius etc. (was Re: USAGE: syllables)

From:Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>
Date:Friday, June 13, 2003, 17:49
On Fri, Jun 13, 2003 at 07:15:18PM +0200, Christophe Grandsire wrote:
> Since in French "Julie" [Zy"li] is definitely and only a feminine name, it > sounds extremely strange to me ;)) . I mean, Asterix and the others may not > have much respect for Caesar, but they never doubted his gender! ;)))
I believe you mean his "sex". And are you saying that it would be an insult to imply that he was female? Misogyny alert! ;-) The most direct English analog of the French name "Julie" is probably "Julia" (["dZulij@]), and it is definitely a feminine name. However, there are also people, such as my cousin, whose full name is "Julie" (i.e., that's what's on the birth certificate); such people are almost invariably feminine here, too. So without any other context, if I hear that someone's name is "Julie", I will adopt as a working hypothesis that they're female. But it ain't necessarily so, since "Julie" is also a nickname for a variety of other names for both sexes. -Mark

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Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>