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Post by Lyndon NoFuture on Jun 9, 2008 21:25:09 GMT
Maybe our French members can help here, but this is something that's bugging me for some reason.
Many languages (including French) have ordinary objects as either masculine or feminine - le bateau, la table etc...
Who decides what is masculine and what is feminine?
An example could be the iPod. A new word must have been created in French for it, but is it "le iPod", or "la iPod", and how is it determined whether it is masculine or feminine. It neither has a willy nor does it have tits. That's how us Brits determine which sex it is.
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Post by uk82 on Jun 9, 2008 23:22:24 GMT
In Swedish the easiest way to see if it is:
He
She
It
He-words is ended by an E, that is easiest compared to the word 'hane' which mean male (mostly used for dogs though)
She-words is mostly ended by an A, that is easiest explained that 'she' is taken for the word 'hona' which mean 'female' (even though we use this mostly for pets or so as in last explanation)
I won't apply any explanations cause Swedish is onje of the worst examples cause this is the 2nd hardest language in the world to learn as scientists have stated it to. The hardest one is Finnish (and to all of you that think this language is close to Swedish - forget it!, It is totally different to Swedish, but I think it have some connections to the Same (Sami) language that the nature-people of Sweden talk.
And for an extra interested idiot or so - the English word "The" is not an prepositiion in our language - it s mostly used as an extra added N or T at the end of our words (with exceptions of course... (and those words might of cause have an extra added vocal to it. like an E as the example below)
House - hus
The House - huset
Sausage - korv
The Sausage - korven
Bum - arslet
The bum - skithålet (and this is when I can't explain no more, hehehe - cheers!)
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Post by sektarisk on Jun 10, 2008 18:48:25 GMT
Phu ! Large question.
There's an old bunch of guys in France dressed in Green and who lives in the "Academie Française" - created by François Ier During the Renaissance & their mainly work is to edit an official dictionnary in XXX volume whith the Real rules to use the French grammar rules.
According to the history for the upper class, the only good language was the Latin, the provincial "mob" use 2 different regional language ( "Oc " language in the south of the Loire, "Oil" - not "oi!" you illeterate - language in the north) so in order to unite the kingdom, the king decide to speak only one language : French. its roots came mostly from the Latin, some from the Celtics too & as I write up some provincial terms too. This politics was followed by the Revolution & so on...
Anyway, mainly words who ends up with a "E" are feminine & others are masculine. Ipod is masculine.
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Post by sektarisk on Jun 10, 2008 18:50:52 GMT
Where the tits on the ipod ? ;D
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Post by anticimex on Jun 11, 2008 13:35:08 GMT
You live and learn,huh?is i pod masculine 'cos of it being seen as a manly possession?I have a creative zen  |
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Post by sektarisk on Jun 11, 2008 18:41:59 GMT
You live and learn,huh?is i pod masculine 'cos of it being seen as a manly possession?I have a creative zen Hey anti, Just speaking about "grammar rules" & I don't even have an Ipod - & I don't plan to buy one. Anyway I prefer real tits -  -. For sure, we can talk about the machist/sexist vision of the world linked with the masculine/feminine character behind the use of vocabulary & grammatical use that exists & that we use unconsciously... resist against ourself too & our common way of thought.... |
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Post by raf on Jun 15, 2008 20:50:26 GMT
I missed an interesting topic here...  |
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Post by Lyndon NoFuture on Jun 16, 2008 17:20:07 GMT
I just thought you didn't know the answer, so didn't reply  |
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Post by raf on Jun 21, 2008 16:07:18 GMT
I just thought you didn't know the answer, so didn't reply You would be surprised !  |
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-. For sure, we can talk about the machist/sexist vision of the world linked with the masculine/feminine character behind the use of vocabulary & grammatical use that exists & that we use unconsciously... 
