Newsgroups: sci.lang.translation,sci.lang
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!news.mathworks.com!news.kei.com!world!jcf
From: jcf@world.std.com (Joseph C Fineman)
Subject: Re: Hebrew genders (was: International Language)
Message-ID: <D2KMz5.GK1@world.std.com>
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
References: <3ejt2e$duv@panix2.panix.com> <D26yA6.vD@actrix.gen.nz> <3eu3mf$5ah@expert.cc.purdue.edu> <3f1qs0$4hc@medici.trl.OZ.AU> <3f2956$bne@panix2.panix.com> <3felcb$cua@medici.trl.OZ.AU>
Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 22:40:16 GMT
Lines: 23
Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu sci.lang.translation:756 sci.lang:34491

jbm@newsserver.trl.oz.au (Jacques Guy) writes:

>  Some Hebrew grammars, however, call numbers with the -ah
>suffix masculine and those without feminine, so that,
>with this topsy-turvy rewriting of the general pattern,
>numbers *agree* with nouns for gender. Mais je trouve
>que c'est se foutre du monde.

That seems like the most charitable & sensible terminology to me.  It
is amusing & puzzling that the convention for numerals is opposite to
the (most usual) one for nouns, but to say that feminine numerals go
with masculine nouns seems to me to bespeak an excessive love of
paradox.  In English, we form the plural of most nouns by adding -s,
and the singular of the present tense of most verbs the same way, but
we do not express that fact by saying that singular nouns take plural
verbs & vice versa.

There are a fair number of exceptions to the Hebrew rule for nouns, by
the way; e.g. laila (night) is masculine, and `ir (city) is feminine.
-- 
        Joe Fineman             jcf@world.std.com
        239 Clinton Road        (617) 731-9190
        Brookline, MA 02146
