Re: Linguistics
From: Douglas Krell (dkrell@msn.com)
Thu Jun 26 11:36:57 2008
It's hard assigning gender to words, but sometimes even harder assigning gender to certain people!
--
Douglas Krell MD
> Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:12:20 -0500
> From: midwifeim@earthlink.net
> To: ob-gyn-l@mail.obgyn.net
> Subject: Re: Linguistics
>
> German has equally confusing gender assignments to some words, as el
> can testify.
>
> Ina May
>
> On 26 Jun 2008, at 07:45, Gerald P. Rodríguez wrote:
>
> > Ef would probably give a better reason, Ann. But best I can tell
> > the anatomic words in Spanish have been assigned either masculine
> > or feminine without regard to the gender to which they belong.
> > Thus it's masculine "el utero" for uterus, but it's "la prostata"
> > for prostate. And it's "el pie" (foot), but it's "la
> > cabeza" (head). Just to throw a curve into the mix, it's "la
> > mano" (hand). Then there is, as in English often more than one
> > label for a body part, so "matriz" is perfectly understood by
> > Spanish speakers as meaning uterus and it's "la matriz," not "el
> > matriz." Perhaps, though I speculate, gender assignment flows from
> > the original derivation of the word--Latin vs. Greek?
> >
> > Gerald P. Rodriguez, M.D., FACOG
> > Santa Fe
> >
>> > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Meenan, Anna" <annam@uic.edu>
> > To: "Multiple recipients of list OB-GYN-L" <ob-gyn-l@mail.obgyn.net>
> > Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 9:41 PM
> > Subject: Re: Linguistics
> >
> >> As long as we are on the subject of linguistics, the Spanish
> >> language, and masculine vs. feminine nouns: Ef, can you tell me
> >> why "el utero" is a masculine noun? It is one of the few things
> >> in this world that can NEVER be anything but feminine, and yet it
> >> is masculine. That one has always given me pause.
> >>
> >> Anna Meenan, MD
> >>
> >>> Que vive el idioma espaÒol.. :)
> >>>
> >>> Ef
> >>>
> >>>> At Wed, 25 Jun 2008, Gerald P. RodrÌguez wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> °Que viva la idioma EspaÒola!
> >>>>
> >>>> Gerald P. RodrÌguez, M.D., FACOG
> >>>> Santa Fe
> >>>>
>> >>>>> ----- Original Message -----
> >>>> From: R. Daniel Braun
> >>>> To: Multiple recipients of list OB-GYN-L
> >>>> Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 9:23 AM
> >>>> Subject: Re: Linguistics
> >>>>
> >>>> That's all fine and good, but if our congressmen don't get off
> >>>> their butts and make English, the OFFICIAL language of the good
> >>>> ole US of A. we're all going to be speaking Spanish anyway.
> >>>>
> >>>> Dan
> >>>>
> >>>> On Wed, Jun 25, 2008 at 11:15 AM, <DoctorJoe@aol.com> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> In a message dated 6/24/08 11:17:01 PM,
> >>>> Stephen.Raymond@dhhs.tas.gov.au writes:
> >>>>
> >>>> Horrified as I am, I can't resist asking, why logical?
> >>>>
> >>>> Well, not to beat a dying horse, but ...
> >>>>
> >>>> Remember that English (and I'm not sure about other
> >>>> languages) became somewhat "formalized" after the invention of
> >>>> the dictionary. Before then, words were spelled irregularly,
> >>>> evidenced by any reproduction of old books and other printed
> >>>> materials. The dictionary was a force which regularized the
> >>>> language and attempted to keep it that way.
> >>>>
> >>>> However, with the expansion of the English language (e.g.
> >>>> American English, Aussie & Kiwi English, "English" English,
> >>>> Indian English), there is a vulgarization of the language in
> >>>> different ways and in different areas of the world. In other
> >>>> words, it's not just whether you're from London or Liverpool any
> >>>> more. And each country is independent of the source of the
> >>>> mother tounge now. In fact, there is some sense of pride in
> >>>> speaking differently from the Queen.
> >>>>
> >>>> So too, in large countries like the US of A, there are
> >>>> large regional differences (along with regional allegiences and
> >>>> pride) which facilitate the very same phenomenon on a more local
> >>>> scale, perhaps more dramatic than the local scale of London
> >>>> versus Liverpool.
> >>>>
> >>>> Therefore, it's logical to think that there would be a
> >>>> relatively active movement to formalize such differences ("ask"
> >>>> versus "axe") from region to region.
> >>>>
> >>>> Perhaps the most obvious historical example of the above is
> >>>> the Roman Empire. Latin was the official language of Rome and
> >>>> thence of the Empire. But after the Empire expanded and then
> >>>> lost control of the different regions, the vulgar Latin in each
> >>>> region became characteristic unto itself, giving us Italian,
> >>>> French, Spanish, Portugese, Romanian, etc. About half way
> >>>> through the Crusades, Europe fell into the inability to
> >>>> understand itself. Languages tend to do that, it seems. There's
> >>>> your logic.
> >>>>
> >>>> Joe P.
> >>>>
> >>>> P.S. An even more interesting subplot of this phenomenon is
> >>>> Italy (and Emilio, correct me if I'm wrong). Each major city or
> >>>> center in Italy had its own dialect of Latin/Italian, even into
> >>>> relatively recent history. (Not to include Sicilian, which is a
> >>>> bit different altogether.) However, when Vittorio Emanuele
> >>>> unified the country, he picked Florentine as the official
> >>>> language, since Florence/Firenze was the relatively well-
> >>>> recognized literary and artistic capital of the country. Thus,
> >>>> Italian today is not a subdialect of Latin, it's an artificially
> >>>> selected sub-subdialect of Latin.
> >>>>
> >>>> Ya know -- This stuff is pretty cool!
> >>>>
> >>>> used cars.
> >>>>
> >>>> --
> >>>> R. Daniel Braun, MD FACOG(L) ABMP CMTh
> >>>> Professor Emeritus
> >>>> Dept. of Obstetrics and Gynecology
> >>>> Indiana U. School of Medicine
> >>>>
> >>>> R. Daniel Braun
> >>>>
> >>>> "Science without Religion is LAME; Religion without Science is
> >>>> BLIND"
> >>>> Einstein 1941
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>> "I can accept failure, but I can't accept not trying." - Michael
> >>> Jordan
> >
>
