Re: Arabo-Romance (was Re: Arabic transliteration)

Christophe Grandsire scripsit:

> > Some nouns are either masculine or femine, with little or no
> > difference in meaning: el or la azucar, el or la mar.
>
> Indeed, another example. Strangely enough, they both end in -ar. Maybe it has to
> do with this ending...
Well, "mar" is from a Latin 3rd declension noun, which does not wear its
gender on its end, so it's not too surprising that it would become
unstable.  (OTOH, all the Romance languages faithfully retain the
feminine gender of MANUS.)

--
John Cowan  jcowan@reutershealth.com  www.reutershealth.com  www.ccil.org/~cowan
"The exception proves the rule."  Dimbulbs think: "Your counterexample proves
my theory."  Latin students think "'Probat' means 'tests': the exception puts
the rule to the proof."  But legal historians know it means "Evidence for an
exception is evidence of the existence of a rule in cases not excepted from."