There are 2 messages in this issue.
Topics in this digest:
1a. Re: Gender of rivers - and other waters.
From: caeruleancentaur
1b. Re: Gender of rivers - and other waters.
From: Lars Finsen
Messages
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1a. Re: Gender of rivers - and other waters.
Posted by: "caeruleancentaur" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Fri Oct 3, 2008 10:41 am ((PDT))
> Lars Finsen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> It struck me that the Suraetuan rivers all have masculine endings,
> and I guess the Suraetuans must think of their waters as a kind of
> semen that fertilises the Earth. Maybe you people who have such wide
> repertoires of languages can tell me how common this is? Of course,
> many languages don't have a gender system. Of the languages I know
> anything about, at least German has a masculine word for river, but
> the majority of the others seem to be feminine. How are you dealing
> with this in your conlangs?
Senjecas has six classes of nouns. All things being equal, rivers
would go in the -os class, the class of perceptible objects.
However, the mythology of the Senjecans puts certain natural phenomena
in the -es class, the animate class. These phenomena include sun,
moon, stars, planets, earth, wind, oceans/seas, and rivers (brooks,
streams, etc.). It looks as though "self-" movement might be the
criterion for including these phenomena in the animate class.
Charlie
Messages in this topic (7)
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1b. Re: Gender of rivers - and other waters.
Posted by: "Lars Finsen" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Fri Oct 3, 2008 11:00 am ((PDT))
Den 3. okt. 2008 kl. 19.31 skreiv caeruleancentaur:
> Senjecas has six classes of nouns. All things being equal, rivers
> would go in the -os class, the class of perceptible objects.
>
> However, the mythology of the Senjecans puts certain natural phenomena
> in the -es class, the animate class. These phenomena include sun,
> moon, stars, planets, earth, wind, oceans/seas, and rivers (brooks,
> streams, etc.). It looks as though "self-" movement might be the
> criterion for including these phenomena in the animate class.
That's interesting. It seems Suraetuans don't do quite the same
thing, because while pora, water, is a masculine (a-class), pofu,
wave, is an abstract or neuter (u-class).
LEF
Messages in this topic (7)
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