Re: Genders (was Re: Láadan and woman's speak_

Robert Hailman wrote:
> Right, but since there is a factor of chance involved, since we don't
> know exactly what inspires a language to develop gender, or lose it,
> what are the odds a language would lose one gender system and gain
> another?
Very high, but why do you keep insisting on having lost one earlier?
Given enough time, I would suspect that the evolution of a gender system
is virtually inevitable.

> It's always possible, but what I want to know is whether it's likely or
> not. I've never doubted whether such a system could form, I'm just
> saying that it's improbable and if a language had a gender system like
> that, I'd be more inclined to think it was consiously added by
> someone...
Well, it's impossible to know - there's never been a society in such a
state!  But I've seen the most bizarre gender systems, things like
"long, narrow objects", or "non-flesh food".

Besides, I think what's really implausible is a conscious engineering of
a natural language like that, or an artificial language being adopted as
a mother tongue, especially if a common language already existed.  It
would be more reasonable to suppose that those genders evolved naturally
then that someone put them in there.

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