Re: Grammatical Gender

I was actually thinking of why *sto:laz "chair" is masculine in Germanic, while *sedlam "seat" is, if I'm not mistaken, neuter, and things like that. That's why I'm hoping to read Brugmann's article once it's posted.

Andy

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Rick McCallister <gabaroo6958@...> wrote:
>
> I'd like to see some (civilized) discussion. In grad school, I was told that IE
> originally had binary gender --either animate vs. inanimate or "normal" vs.
> diminutive but it's obviously much more complicated.
> I am amused how gender changes across linguistic or even regional lines: e.g.
> Spanish el sol vs. German die Sonne; standard Spanish el sartén vs. regional la
> sartén "skillet, frying pan"; etc. and how the same object has different genders
> depending on which name you use for it.
> It's also interesting how words bifurcate into new words: e.g. el frente "the
> front" vs. la frente "the forehead", and many, many more.
> Lookalikes are often amusing - I tell my students not to order "papas fritos" at
> the McDonald's in the Vatican but to stick to "papas fritas"
>