----- Original Message -----
From: Merle K. Peirce <at258_at_osfn.org>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu>
Sent: Saturday, April 17, 1999 11:29 AM
Subject: Re: OT: City Names
> > Well, no not really. Simply doesn't exist in English. Everything is
um,
> > neuter I guess, we don't have a term for it that we didn't pinch from
> > another language actually.
>
> We certainly do have gender, but usually the forms are identical.
Oh? Can you give me an example? If so, it demonstrates that gender is
irrelevant in English I guess.
Perhaps it had gender once? I think Latin had gender and we use a lot of
Latin words.
> Inflection in English is very restricted, compared say to German or the
> classical languages.
Make it "virtually nonexistent" and I'll go along with that.
> Since our adjectives have the same form for each gender, it's not
noticeable,
> and hasn't been that way for say 800 years
> or so.
The existence of gender in English is not taught at school.. I'd remember
that.
I was exposed to French briefly in 1st Year High. It was the first time I
heard of the concept.
(Dropped it as irrelevant after a term and did Tech Drawing instead)
Cheers
Geoff Roberts
Received on Fri Apr 16 1999 - 14:05:42 BST