Re: OT: Julius etc. (was Re: USAGE: syllables)
| From: | Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...> |
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| Date: | Friday, June 13, 2003, 17:49 |
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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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