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From: John Cowan <cowan@ccil.org>
Subject: Re: Dutch gender
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I wrote:
 =

> > (Interesting that Dutch and North Germanic have -- independently? --
> > converged on common/neuter; does Low German do the same?)

Anders Blehr correctly rebuked me:

> North Germanic: Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic and Faeroese.
> =

> Standard Swedish and Danish have lost the masculine/feminine
> distinction, and so has one single Norwegian dialect (the Bergen
> dialect, which happens to be my native dialect).  All other Norwegian
> dialects and both written standards have retained it.  Most Swedish
> dialects have retained it, and Danish dialects range from one to three
> genders.  Icelandic and Faeroese have both retained all three genders.

Okay, I should have said "some North Germanic dialects", although
I was under the impression that only Nynorsk had M/F distinction,
not Bokm=E5l (as another poster in this thread mentions, it is
an optional distinction), and I was ignoring Insular North Germanic
entirely.  *self-bonk*

But anyway, is this common/neuter style of gender the result
of a Sprachbund, or is it motivated independently in the =

relevant West and North Germanic dialects?

-- =

John Cowan						cowan@ccil.org
			e'osai ko sarji la lojban
