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

>From: Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...>
>Any feature of language can evolve from the absence, a caseless language
>can develop cases, and a genderless language can evolve gender.  Exactly
>where gender comes from isn't completely agreed-upon, but probably
>evolves from classifiers.  So, my idea was a language that had no gender
>(possibly having lost another gender system in the past) developed a
>gender system based upon things like electric/non-electric.
>
Hello again everyone. I'm home for the summer (the whole summer, sigh) and
now officially delurking.

Perhaps if the Internet continues in this manner and takes a prominent,
permanent place in English-speaking cultures (and lots of other cultures,
I'm sure), English could develop a gender distinction "cyberspace/real
world" based on the classifier /i/- . Just a thought.



Jennifer

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There are, it may be, so many kinds of languages in the world, and none of
them is without significance. - I Cor. 14:10

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