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From: comm@zeus.bris.ac.uk (M. Murray)
Subject: Re: GENDER in English and German
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Date: Sun, 6 Oct 1996 20:59:05 GMT
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Beatrice Muller (muller@noao.edu) wrote:
: In article <01bbae29$15d085a0$548362cf@indirect.indirect.com>, "Steve MacGregor" <SteveMac@GoodNet.Com> writes:
:  
: |>   Then stop considering yourself excluded, and you will cease to be.
: |>     der Student = one who studies
: |>     die Studentin = woman who studies>>
: |> 
: |>   You are both.  Specifically, you are female, so the feminine term
: |> applies to you.  You are also a person who fits the description in the
: |> abstract of "one who studies", so in the abstract, the first applies to
: |> you.
: 
: I disagree
: 
: der Student = man who studies
: die Studentin = woman who studies

That's fine. What is the word for "person who studies"? German needs one. 
Will you use "der Student", as Steve suggests, but that leaves no word for
"man who studies"? Or StudentIn (is that der, die or das)? Or what?  Or
will you just moan that German is (like most, or all, languages) a sexist
language, which as a historical fact is probably undeniable? 

-- 
Martin Murray :: School of Chemistry, Bristol University, BS8 1TS, England
