Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site ptsfa.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!zehntel!dual!ptsfa!rob
From: rob@ptsfa.UUCP (Rob Bernardo)
Newsgroups: net.nlang,net.women
Subject: Re: Gender-specific responses to s/he
Message-ID: <437@ptsfa.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 20-Jan-85 22:47:48 EST
Article-I.D.: ptsfa.437
Posted: Sun Jan 20 22:47:48 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 22-Jan-85 06:14:13 EST
References: <641@uwmacc.UUCP>, <980@utastro.UUCP> <5242@duke.UUCP>, <630@voder.UUCP> <497@hou5g.UUCP>
Organization: Pacific Bell, San Francisco
Lines: 23
Xref: watmath net.nlang:2460 net.women:4176

> more about German:
> 
> the way they say "one" is "man".  
> 
> in German:  	man = Mann,
> 		woman = frau
> 		one = man 
> 

Something similar happened in French. In a few cases, the older nominative
and accusative cases of the same noun in Old French gave rise to two
separate nouns of Modern French. The nominative form of the word for
'man' gave rise to the Modern French word for 'one' (generic person):

case	Latin 	->	Old French ->	Mod French	Mod French meaning

nom.	homo	->	om	->	on		one (the generic person)
acc.	hominem	->	homme	->	homme		man
-- 


Rob Bernardo, Pacific Bell, San Francisco, California
{ihnp4,ucbvax,cbosgd,decwrl,amd70,fortune,zehntel}!dual!ptsfa!rob