> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, mkapovic@... wrote:
>> I mean, in my native language, man is masc., but my
>> girlfriend can also be in diminutive, a wall is also masc., as well
> as the
>> moon. OK, women is fem. gender, but so is the grass, and a man who
> is a
>> fool.
>
>
> Could you give an example of that? Is it the same as what used to
> exist in Czech (I'm not sure it's still alive), according to which
> feminine endings in adjectives etc. were considered humiliating when
> applied to boys, e.g. _hloupá Honzo_.
Nope, no such thing here. I was talking about:
masc. mus^karac "man" (but also mus^ko - neuter!!!), curetak/curic^ak
"little girl", zid "wall", mjesec "moon"
fem. z^ena "woman", trava "grass", budala "fool"
Budala (a Turkic loanword) is of fem. gender whether it applies to man or
a woman (agreement - ova budala "this fool"). And it's not by the way fem.
because it's derrogatory but because it's a loanword which ends in -a.
Hmm, but I just thought of a thing that could be indeed sexist in nature.
It concerns nouns in -ica which are declined as fem. but can agree with
masc. adj. and verbs. Thus we have izbjeglica "refugee", poglavica "chief
(of the tribe)" which can agree only with masc. (ovaj izbjeglica, ovaj
poglavica), but kukavica "coward" and izdajica "traitor" can agree with
both masc. and fem. (ovaj/ova kukavica, ovaj/ova izdajica). That could be
because the latter examples are derogatory although I do not feel any
difference in saying those with masc. or fem. agreement.(I usually use
only the fem. agreement as a rule).
Mate