Re: USAGE: What gender is _Wikipedia_ in German?

> What gender is _Wikipedia_ in German?
Okay, not an answer to your question, and tangential
to the subject, but... what gender is "wikipedia" in
swedish? "En wikipedia", "ett wikipedia"... it's
neither, right, because "wikipedia" is a proper name?

(Begin rant)

Makes me think of my dad's dialect, which has a
special set of clitics used with names of people, when
those names are used to refer to a person by that
name. (So, for instance, you use the clitic when
saying things like "I met Ove yesterday", but not when
saying "His name is Ove", because in the latter case,
"Ove" refers to the name itself, rather than to
someone called "Ove"). The clitics were en-/n- in the
case of men, and a- in the case of women, so you got
things like:

Jag såg n'Ove
I saw Ove

And

Jag såg a'Karin
I saw Karin

I think it's an interesting feature.

/Kalle B

--- Benct Philip Jonsson <bpjonsson@...> skrev:

> Well, the subject line says it all:
> What gender is _Wikipedia_ in German?
> Sure _paidía_ is feminine in Greek, but
> one can never be sure.  It might even be
> neuter plural! ;-)
> --
>
> /BP 8^)>
> --
> Benct Philip Jonsson -- melroch at melroch dot se
>
>          Solitudinem faciunt pacem appellant!
>
> (Tacitus)
>
> I'm afraid the current situation in the Eastern
> Mediterranean forces me to reinstate this
> signature...
>

Replies