so the origin of masculine feminine in IE is weird. The issue is that Hittite, the oldest attested IE language has two genders animate and inanimate. These ar

so the origin of masculine feminine in IE is weird. The issue is that Hittite, the oldest attested IE language has two genders animate and inanimate. These are very very conventional. The sea Aruna is animate, but a grindstone is inanimate! Tocharian also has evidence of the animate inanimate split, but tocharian is such a mess no one knows what to make of it. All other IE language families (besides the weirdos like Armenian) have or had 3 genders. The question is the relationship between Hittite and the rest of IE. Most indoeuropeanists think Hittite (and maybe tocharian) split before the rest of the IE languages, which after the split developed gender and other things that Hittite lacks, before splitting in turn. That said, it’s possible that masculine and feminine merged in Hittite, and the trigender system came first.