Re: word gender identity

Roger Mills wrote:

> Mark J. Reed wrote:
>  John Cowan wrote:
> > > Il uovo, le uova in Italian (not gli uovi).
> >
> > That is interesting.  I'm not aware of any examples in Spanish
> > (the Romance language with which I have the most experience), but
> > I guess it's a logical possbility when developing from a language
> > with three genders into one with only two.
> >
> No actual changes of gender AFAIK.  There are the few cases where Span. uses
> the masc. def. article (before bisyllables with initial /a/??) in the
> singular, but the fem. art. in the plural.  But I think the singular remains
> feminine-- it's supposedly just for euphony--
>
> el arte, las artes (but IIRC el arte romanA?, arte poética)
> el agua, las aguas (el agua suciA?, agua fría)
Yes, it´s for euphony. El, un rather than la, una are used before stressed
initial /a/, the number of syllables is not a factor:

el águila, el hacha (silent h), la abadesa (stressed e), la acción; they all
take femenine pronouns and adjectives

arte is generally masc. in singular; fem. in plural

el arte romano, las artes romanas

so arte would be an example of change of gender

David Barrow