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From: ran@cbran.cb.att.com (Robert Neinast)
Subject: Re: Gender in the world's languages
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Date: Fri, 16 Dec 1994 19:43:46 GMT
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In article <787603010.AA02984@clone.his.com>,
maury.merkin@his.com (Maury Merkin) says:
> Over on another mailing list the assertion was made that all languages except
> English assign a "gender" to all concepts.  I seriously doubt that that's
> true but know very little about any except those which do.

Nahuatl (the language of the Aztecs, and others) has no gender.
It fact, it does not even distinguish between he/she/it.  For
plurals, though, it (classical Nahuatl--contact with Spanish
is changing this) does distinguish between animate/inanimate,
with a rather liberal idea of what is animate (it includes
things like clouds and mountains, which are considered animate
for religious reasons).

Bob
-- 
". . . and shun the frumious Bandersnatch."
Robert Neinast (ran@cbebl1.att.com)
AT&T-Bell Labs (Columbus, OH)
