3 ms·
And the answer is because originally house was neuter and mouse & louse were feminine, in previous iterations of the language. Slightly buried in there. And Ha
by barrkel 3y ago
And the answer is because originally house was neuter and mouse & louse were feminine, in previous iterations of the language. Slightly buried in there.
And Haus is still neuter in German, while Maus and Laus are feminine.
- whycome 3y agoLanguage is crazy. I'm always learning. This is the first time I realized what it means to "neuter" a dog.
- saulpw 3y agoAnd neither a neutered male nor a spayed female are actually sexless--you still refer to them as "he" and "she". They are merely reproductively disabled. On a side note, I just learned that 'neutral' comes from the Latin word 'neuter' (meaning 'neither').
- ruined 3y agoi used to have a cat that i never gendered in speech. of course the cat didn't care, but hilariously some people would feel the need to ask directly about my cat's genitals
- singularity2001 3y agois that related to the strange "r" plural/dual in German?
- em-bee 3y agothey also show a similar difference in plural: Häuser vs Mäuse and Läuse