Re: IE Thematic Vowel Rule

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:

> And here's an idea: since in IE Nordwestblock there was no rule *-k
> > *-x (proof: padde, paddock ; Made, madikke, maggot) there was no
> vowel-ending new stem on which to base a feminine gender. Which is
> why the Northern Germanic languages (ie. North and West Germanic
> minus High German) have a tendency towards losing the feminine; the
> occupied masses never learned it (or the point of it).

Well, you can't include the Skagerack-Kattegatt area in this
genderindifference.
In fact, Swedish dialects on Danish substratum - and adjacent ones! -
are even today more sensible to masculine/feminine distinction, if not
in articles, but for sure in definite adjective-constructions:
den glöttig-e pågen, den glöttig-a tösen;
Kristian den först-e, Margareta den andr-a

Lars