4 ms·
> Didn't English the also came from neuter if I'm not mistaken? Confirming, you are mistaken. English used to be 3-gendered (system m,f,n) like its linguistic
by bmn__ 5y ago
> Didn't English the also came from neuter if I'm not mistaken?
Confirming, you are mistaken. English used to be 3-gendered (system m,f,n) like its linguistic predecessors and neighbours, only lost it in the 14th century with scant traces remaining. <https://i2.wp.com/antigonejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/EuropeGenderMap.png https://i2.wp.com/antigonejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/202...>
- inawarminister 5y agoYeah, the articles the comes from masculine, that from feminine, and this from the neuter demonstrative. That's what I was talking about. It seems I was mistaken, no wonder Interlingua makers used Romance masculine demonstrative le for their universal article due to using English as grammatical source. Ille, illos, illa Le, les, los, las, etc Romance languages inventing gendered articles from gendered demonstratives is always fun. (Especially since my language, Malay, has no grammatical gender at all, not even in the third person; and have no regularized article.) [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_English_grammar#Demonstratives https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_English_grammar#Demonstr...