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My native language is Russian. There are three grammatical genders, but only two of them are used for sentient beings, to talk about someone in the neutral gend

My native language is Russian. There are three grammatical genders, but only two of them are used for sentient beings, to talk about someone in the neutral gender is derogatory af (not that it stops people — I've seen one person call themselves "оно"). Other than this extremely rare occasion, everyone is 100% okay with using gendered words because those are the only ones we have. Hell, we don't even have the word "sibling", it's either a brother or a sister. But we do have another similar phenomenon going on. Feminitives. It's when some people assign the female gender to words that don't have a female form, or that do have one but it's not cringy enough. So автор becomes авторка, врач becomes врачка (instead of врачиха), учитель becomes учителька (instead of учительница), and so on.

klibertp 5y ago
That "sibling" thing is quite interesting actually. In Polish, we have "brat" and "siostra" for brother and sister, and we have "rodzeństwo" for siblings (plural), but there is no singular form in the language. Is it similar in Russian? On the other hand, "autor" and "autorka" are normal forms; same for "lekarz" and "lekarka", "nauczyciel" and "nauczycielka". These seem to be equivalent to the shorter forms you list. I'm not sure how to translate your longer forms, "nauczycielniczka"? There's no such word. Interesting to see that different languages can have perfectly opposite grammar rules, even if the words are similar and the grammar also shares some similarities in other areas :)
- grishka 5y ago
  > Is it similar in Russian? Nope, no equivalent to "sibling" at all, not even plural. If you want to say "siblings", you say "братья и сёстры". edit: "родня" might be kinda like "rodzeństwo", but it's not just siblings, it's relatives in general. > I'm not sure how to translate your longer forms, "nauczycielniczka"? There's no such word. "Учительница" (or short slang form "училка") is the correct feminine form found in dictionaries. "Учителька" is the cringy one coined by feminists. They both mean "female teacher", but apparently the correct one is somehow worse or not modern enough? I don't know.
jhgb 5y ago
> There are three grammatical genders, but only two of them are used for sentient beings, to talk about someone in the neutral gender is derogatory af What about дитя? Isn't that a neuter in Russian? I know the equivalent "dítě" is a neuter in Czech. (For obvious reasons this is why the neuter is not being used in Czech either for referring to adult people -- it's completely infantilizing.)
- grishka 5y ago
  It's kinda archaic. All words normally used for small kids (ребёнок, младенец) are masculine.

klibertp 5y ago

That "sibling" thing is quite interesting actually. In Polish, we have "brat" and "siostra" for brother and sister, and we have "rodzeństwo" for siblings (plural), but there is no singular form in the language. Is it similar in Russian? On the other hand, "autor" and "autorka" are normal forms; same for "lekarz" and "lekarka", "nauczyciel" and "nauczycielka". These seem to be equivalent to the shorter forms you list. I'm not sure how to translate your longer forms, "nauczycielniczka"? There's no such word. Interesting to see that different languages can have perfectly opposite grammar rules, even if the words are similar and the grammar also shares some similarities in other areas :)

grishka 5y ago
> Is it similar in Russian? Nope, no equivalent to "sibling" at all, not even plural. If you want to say "siblings", you say "братья и сёстры". edit: "родня" might be kinda like "rodzeństwo", but it's not just siblings, it's relatives in general. > I'm not sure how to translate your longer forms, "nauczycielniczka"? There's no such word. "Учительница" (or short slang form "училка") is the correct feminine form found in dictionaries. "Учителька" is the cringy one coined by feminists. They both mean "female teacher", but apparently the correct one is somehow worse or not modern enough? I don't know.

jhgb 5y ago

> There are three grammatical genders, but only two of them are used for sentient beings, to talk about someone in the neutral gender is derogatory af What about дитя? Isn't that a neuter in Russian? I know the equivalent "dítě" is a neuter in Czech. (For obvious reasons this is why the neuter is not being used in Czech either for referring to adult people -- it's completely infantilizing.)

grishka 5y ago
It's kinda archaic. All words normally used for small kids (ребёнок, младенец) are masculine.