Re: word gender identity
| From: | Roger Mills <romilly@...> |
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| Date: | Monday, June 2, 2003, 3:19 |
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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)
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