Re: Noun genders (was: Re: Is English a creole? (was: Indo-European Studies))
Vidhyanath K Rao (vrao@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu)
31 Jul 1995 19:38:13 GMT
In article <1995Jul26.091905.18290@onionsnatcorp.ox.ac.uk>,
Glynis Baguley <gmb@natcorp.ox.ac.uk> wrote:
>Me too. Something I'd be particularly interested to know is whether
>the terms masculine and feminine (and neuter, etc) have been used for
>as far back as anyone knows, or whether they were much later.
In India, at least as early as 4th century BCE. (Actually, the words
used in Sanskrit grammar were, and are, pumlinga, striilinga and
napumsakalinga: male, female and ?; I am not sure about the literal
meaning, but I think it is non-malelike; it is invariably translated
as neuter gender).
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