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Subject:Re: The Gender Issue (PC) From:David Dubin <David_Dubin -at- BESTSOFTWARE -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 18 Jan 1999 10:44:26 -0500
David Harrison wrote, "On the other hand, many European languages have
masculine, feminine and, sometimes, neuter genders,-- do you French,
German, Italian (et cetera) writers live with the genders as part of your
language? Or do you also have a similar challenge to be politically correct
and avoid trying to fight it? Do you resort to other tricks (such as always
writing in plural) to comply with the issue?"
German has three genders, masculine (der), feminine (die), and neutral
(das). Each noun has its own gender, but the plural of a noun is always the
same as the feminine, das. Spanish, like French, has only masculine (el)
and feminine (la). Gender isn't an issue in German, Spanish or any of the
other foreign languages that have gender-specific words because the gender
is part of the language and has nothing to do with issues of gender
relations, sex, or political correctness.
In American English, the gender issue has nothing to do with nouns,
pronouns, or articles. It has to do with perceptions, politics, and people.
David Dubin
This has been one man's opinion, yours may vary with mileage
