Re: Gender of rivers - and other waters.

Yes, German "Sun" is called feminine because it is "die Sonne" and
grammarians long ago decided that nouns which take "die" in the Nom.Sing.
would be called "feminine". But this is a very far cry from saying that
there is something inherently sexually-feminine about the Sun. In many
languages which have grammatical gender, sex-gender nouns are not mapped
100% on to these gender types, either. Of course in the sense of objects in
which one could invest some animism there may be in some cultures (and I
guess this is where you're coming from with your conlang!) a good case for
doing this. And a darn good thing too, I say, personally. Wish I'd have
included in my conlang!
Mike
>
> Of course there are many ways to classify nouns, but I think the  gender
> systems in many cultures strongly suggest some relation to the  genders of
> the deities or spirits inhabiting the physical objects.  For example, the
> Germanic Sun is feminine with a masculine Moon  counterpart, while further
> south it is often the other way around.  After all, gender is a vital part
> of your spiritual world wherever  you happen to locate yourself in space
> and time, at least if you're  human.
>
> As for Suraetua I'm not completely sure if the classes are so gender-
> relevant after all. The only two obvious classes are the a-class,  which
> is generally substantial, and the u-class, which is abstract.  There are
> many nouns with other endings, mostly consonantal, but I  think I possibly
> may find feminine e-endings hidden in the material  if I explore it some
> more.
>
> LEF
>
>
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