5 ms·
The Awful German Language - Mark Twain [1] I love that essay - and he agrees with you on the gender issue: --- To continue with the German genders: a tree is
by darklajid 15y ago
The Awful German Language - Mark Twain [1]
I love that essay - and he agrees with you on the gender issue:
---
To continue with the German genders: a tree is male, its buds are female, its leaves are neuter; horses are sexless, dogs are male, cats are female -- tomcats included, of course; a person's mouth, neck, bosom, elbows, fingers, nails, feet, and body are of the male sex, and his head is male or neuter according to the word selected to signify it, and not according to the sex of the individual who wears it -- for in Germany all the women either male heads or sexless ones; a person's nose, lips, shoulders, breast, hands, and toes are of the female sex; and his hair, ears, eyes, chin, legs, knees, heart, and conscience haven't any sex at all. The inventor of the language probably got what he knew about a conscience from hearsay.
Now, by the above dissection, the reader will see that in Germany a man may think he is a man, but when he comes to look into the matter closely, he is bound to have his doubts; he finds that in sober truth he is a most ridiculous mixture; and if he ends by trying to comfort himself with the thought that he can at least depend on a third of this mess as being manly and masculine, the humiliating second thought will quickly remind him that in this respect he is no better off than any woman or cow in the land.
---
1: http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/linghebr/awfgrmlg.html http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/linghebr/awfgrmlg.html (First hit I found on Google. You might find "better" versions)
- StavrosK 15y agoAh, I've read this before, it's delightful, but I go one further. I don't actually mind the detached genders (Greek has them, the door is a she, the table is an it, the bench is a he), as long as you can guess it from the word itself somehow (in Greek, gender is determined by the word's suffix, the girl is still neuter but you can tell even if you've never seen the word before). In German, you basically have to learn an extra bit of information for every word.
- officemonkey 15y agoIt's more than a bit: 0 = der 1 = die 10 = das
- StavrosK 15y ago"A bit" = "some". I know that 3 > 2.
- officemonkey 15y agoI'm sorry, I thought you were speaking technically. "An extra bit of information" could easily be mistaken for a computer term.
- StavrosK 15y agoI guess it is, but I thought people would realise that I don't think that a bit has three states :P
- officemonkey 15y agoI knew you knew German had three genders, I just thought other people didn't know.
- StavrosK 15y agoOh, true. Good catch, thanks!
- darklajid 15y agoAh, right. Yes, it's just arbitrary and completely disconnected from the words as far as I can tell. In fact, we tend to argue about the gender of things here regularly. One well-known (and mocked) example is a very popular local hazelnut cream. People actually discuss if the brand name should be considered female or of no gender at all (not sure if anyone wants to claim that it should be male). Since there's no real logic behind all these rules it's fair game to argue about it..
- kahawe 15y agoIt varies by region and dialect, also - very popular example is the soda pop "Cola". In Austria Cola is neuter "it", in Germany it is female, which for me as a native speaker from Austria always "feels" like they are referring to the can (which is female in Germany and Austria).
- eru 15y agoAre you talking about Nutella? Shockingly, that's actual Italian, and not local to Germany.
- mgkimsal 15y agore: genders - I learned the hard way that "pollo" and "polla" have completely different meanings in Spain when I ordered a chicken sandwich.