Re: [The Birds and the Bees of Gender]

Brian Betty wrote:

> Ed Heil wrote: "Genders are (as someone else explained well) one subtyp=
e of
> noun classifier system.  [snip] Proto-Indo-European had a very small
> classifier system, with three categories, Masc., Fem., and Neuter (perh=
aps
> originally only two, Animate and Neuter), whose prototypical subcategor=
ies
> were men, women, and inanimate objects respectively."
>
> I just thought I'd add my 2 cents in here. In English we call these
> grammatical categories of words 'gender' because Indo-European
> *grammatical* genders are identified with mammalian *sexual* genders.
Are in English the grammatical categories called gender becaus the biolog=
ical
'gender'?  I've always thought it was that in English the biological sex =
is
called 'gender' as an euphenism, based on the grammatical gender.

--
                                      o_o
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
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   Chlewey Thompin                              ## ####
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   - =BFPor qu=E9 no?
   - No tiene sentido.
   - =BFQu=E9 sentido?  El sentido no existe.
   - El sentido inverso.  O el sentido norte.  El sentido com=FAn, tal ve=
z.  O
sin sentido, como aqu=ED.
    (-- Graeville 2)