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From: iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Ivan A Derzhanski)
Subject: Re: Hebrew genders (was: International Language)
Message-ID: <D2LFpx.JH6@cogsci.ed.ac.uk>
Organization: Centre for Cognitive Science, Edinburgh, UK
References: <3f2956$bne@panix2.panix.com> <3felcb$cua@medici.trl.OZ.AU> <D2KMz5.GK1@world.std.com>
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 1995 09:01:06 GMT
Lines: 33
Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu sci.lang.translation:761 sci.lang:34512

In article <D2KMz5.GK1@world.std.com> jcf@world.std.com (Joseph C Fineman) writes:
>It is amusing & puzzling that [in Hebrew and Arabic] 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.

It doesn't take such a long trip back in time to see that the 3Sg present
ending _-s_ is derived from _-th_, whereas the plural ending _-s_ isn't,
so that's a clear case of accidental homonymy of two morphemes.  Can it
be argued that in Hebrew and Arabic we're likewise dealing with two
separate suffixes which have happened to fall together?

To take another example, Finnish nouns have the same form for Sg.gen
and Sg.acc, and the same is true of masculine animate Russian nouns,
but the difference is that in Finnish the coincidence is accidental
(resulting from phonetic changes causing both Sg.gen *_-n'_ > _-n_
and Sg.acc *_-m_ > _n_), whereas in Russian the form both forms go
back to the original genitive, which has come to be used as accusative.

>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.

Never mind nouns.  Compare adjectives, or ordinal numerals for that matter,
to cardinal numerals.

-- 
`Don't know whit ye're bletherin aboot', said Peter.    (The Glasgow Gospel)
Ivan A Derzhanski (iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk, iad@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu)
* Centre for Cognitive Science,  2 Buccleuch Place,   Edinburgh EH8 9LW,  UK
* Cowan House E113, Pollock Halls, 18 Holyrood Pk Rd, Edinburgh EH16 5BD, UK
