Re: Even more on gender neutrality

[david -dot- godley -at- thinking -dot- com -dot- au]

> 
> By the way, Sanskrit is Indo-European, though distantly related.  And, it
> turns out, the term "gender" in language has nothing to do with the sex of
> an object; the term is derived from Latin "gens" meaning "type".  It is just
> a coincidence that Indo-European languages generally have three genders that
> happen to correspond roughly to masculine, feminine and neuter.  There are
> languages that have more than three genders (I believe the record is 127),
> and some that only have two.


An example of a language where gender is used in terms of "type" is Thai.

All objects are classified by what can only be described as a descriptive
collective noun

Much mirth and merriment is to be had if you use the wrong classifier.

Thai also has no plural form.

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