Newsgroups: sci.lang
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!ames!waikato!comp.vuw.ac.nz!actrix.gen.nz!news
From: "Paul J. Kriha" <kriha_p@actrix.gen.nz>
Subject: Re: Gender in the world's languages
Message-ID: <D13wwu.AnK@actrix.gen.nz>
Nntp-Posting-Host: kriha.actrix.gen.nz
Sender: news@actrix.gen.nz (News Administrator)
Organization: Actrix Networks -- NZ Internet Service Providers.
Date: Tue, 20 Dec 1994 11:22:05 GMT
References: <787603010.AA02984@clone.his.com> <3cslm6$jd3@newshost.lanl.gov> <D0xwwD.3Hw@actrix.gen.nz> <3d567c$dtj@nic.umass.edu>
Lines: 35

smailer@twain.ucs.umass.edu (Ira Smailer) wrote:
>
> Paul J. Kriha (kriha_p@actrix.gen.nz) wrote:
> : tanmoy@qcd.lanl.gov (Tanmoy Bhattacharya) wrote:
[...]
> : There are cases, however, when feminine gender is 'forced' upon
> : a place name, town or a lake by the locals through their emotional
> : attachment.  There are many cases where the locals living within
> : 10/15 km radius of a village or a lake would decline it's name 
> : following the feminine rules.
> 
> Actually the gender of place names is a pretty eclectic mix. Some
> are masculine (e.g. Hradec Kralove), some are female (Praha of course),
> some are neutrum (Usti nad Labem), and some are even plural (e.g.
> Litome^r^ice).
> 
> : Paul JK
> 
> Ira

What I was referring to were the cases of outright disagreement 
between locals and other people regarding which gender
a particular name belongs to.

For example, "Bezdrev" (lake) and "Zliv" (town) look
like undisputable masculine nouns. However, the locals treat
them as feminines.  They refer to them as "ta Bezdrev"
and "ta Zliv" and decline them accordingly.

BTW, Praha in Old Czech/Old Slavic (I don't remember which)
was an uncountable plural. Something like Shallows/Fords.
Today's word "pra'h" means a threshold.

Paul JK
 
