Re: Genders

On Tue, Sep 05, 2000 at 10:40:24PM -0700, DOUGLAS KOLLER wrote:
[snip]
> "Ni3", "you" can exhibit a similar distinction between "you, masc.", "you,
> fem." and "You, God". Less seldom used than "ta1", though "you, fem." seems
> to occur in the lyrics of many Cantopop love ballads.
I've seen "you, fem." and "her, fem." occurring in comic books, fiction
prose, etc.. And this is in Mandarin, not Cantonese. It does seem quite
widespread. As to its origins, your missionary theory seems plausible...
though I suspect it might occur in older manuscripts too. To me, it almost
seems like an archaic literary flourish than anything else. We never use
these characters in normal, everyday writing. But of course, I'm biased,
so take this with a *big* grain of salt. :-)

(Aside: Believe it or not, Cantonese does have a few characters not shared
by other dialects. The opposite of the Mandarin "shi4" (yes, to be) is one
example, written like the regular "shi4" but visibly missing a few
strokes, to convey the idea of not being. So "improvisations" do occur in
Chinese writing, which lends credence to your missionary theory.)


T