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German will raise you the grammatically neuter “Mädchen”, meaning girl or maiden.

by mattkrause 6y ago

umanwizard 6y ago
That's because of a systematic rule that all words ending in the "chen" morpheme are neuter.
- _Microft 6y ago
  To expand on that: -chen is usually indicating a diminutive form of another word. Some examples (also observe how that affects the vowel in the first syllable): die Wurst, das Würstchen (the sausage, the small sausage) der Mann, das Männchen (the man, the little man) der Becher, das Becherchen (the cup, the small cup; this is an example in which the first vowel is phonetically close enough to the following "e" in "-chen" that no vowel change occurs (we do not even have umlauts for "i" or "e" in german)).
- mattkrause 6y ago
  Sure, there's a certain logic to it. I just think it's an unimpeachable example of the disconnect between biological and grammatical gender.
derriz 6y ago
I’m reminded of the Mark Twain essay, The Awful German Language where he says: “In German, a young lady has no sex, while a turnip has. Think what overwrought reverence that shows for the turnip, and what callous disrespect for the girl.” Despite its age the essay* is well worth a read for native English speakers struggling to learn German. * https://faculty.georgetown.edu/jod/texts/twain.german.html https://faculty.georgetown.edu/jod/texts/twain.german.html
- qayxc 6y ago
  Mark Twain was making fun - the essay isn't supposed to be taken seriously. His conclusion would also be wrong, since the grammatical gender has nothing to do with he biological gender - it's the gender assigned to all diminutive forms, regardless of grammatical gender. E.g. "der Vater" (the father) becomes "das Väterchen" just as well without loosing his proverbial balls in the process.
  - derriz 6y ago
    Well yes - it's clearly a joke? It seems so obvious to me that I didn't think it needed to be pointed out when I quoted it.

German will raise you the grammatically neuter “Mädchen”, meaning girl or maiden.

umanwizard 6y ago

That's because of a systematic rule that all words ending in the "chen" morpheme are neuter.

_Microft 6y ago
To expand on that: -chen is usually indicating a diminutive form of another word. Some examples (also observe how that affects the vowel in the first syllable): die Wurst, das Würstchen (the sausage, the small sausage) der Mann, das Männchen (the man, the little man) der Becher, das Becherchen (the cup, the small cup; this is an example in which the first vowel is phonetically close enough to the following "e" in "-chen" that no vowel change occurs (we do not even have umlauts for "i" or "e" in german)).
mattkrause 6y ago
Sure, there's a certain logic to it. I just think it's an unimpeachable example of the disconnect between biological and grammatical gender.

derriz 6y ago

I’m reminded of the Mark Twain essay, The Awful German Language where he says: “In German, a young lady has no sex, while a turnip has. Think what overwrought reverence that shows for the turnip, and what callous disrespect for the girl.” Despite its age the essay* is well worth a read for native English speakers struggling to learn German. * https://faculty.georgetown.edu/jod/texts/twain.german.html https://faculty.georgetown.edu/jod/texts/twain.german.html

qayxc 6y ago
Mark Twain was making fun - the essay isn't supposed to be taken seriously. His conclusion would also be wrong, since the grammatical gender has nothing to do with he biological gender - it's the gender assigned to all diminutive forms, regardless of grammatical gender. E.g. "der Vater" (the father) becomes "das Väterchen" just as well without loosing his proverbial balls in the process.
- derriz 6y ago
  Well yes - it's clearly a joke? It seems so obvious to me that I didn't think it needed to be pointed out when I quoted it.