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From: mcv@inter.NL.net (Miguel Carrasquer)
Subject: Re: PIE gender system
Message-ID: <CxILGF.AD4@inter.NL.net>
Organization: NLnet
References: <37coi2$d2n@larry.rice.edu>
Date: Tue, 11 Oct 1994 15:24:14 GMT
Lines: 20

In article <37coi2$d2n@larry.rice.edu>,
Bolderaft <jsallen@boreal.owlnet.rice.edu> wrote:
>Why do the Indo-European languages have such a
>strange gender system?  Do we know its origin?
>Why does gender classification in I.E. seem so
>arbitrary?                         --Bolderaft

The oldest stage in Indo-European (Hittite) shows only
a two way division (animate/inanimate).  The animate
"gender" was later split into feminine and masculine,
mostly by the creation of a special -aH suffix to denote
the feminine of nouns and adjectives of the o-stems 
(like Latin bonus/bona).  Once this system was created
for the adjectives, all other nouns had to follow suit.
Some sexist arbitrariness was to be expected.

-- 
Miguel Carrasquer         ____________________  ~~~
Amsterdam                [                  ||]~  
mcv@inter.NL.net         ce .sig n'est pas une .cig 
