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From: dgary@ecsvax.UUCP (D Gary Grady)
Newsgroups: net.lang,net.women
Subject: Re: Pronouns devoid of gender connotations.
Message-ID: <1647@ecsvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 15-Jul-85 13:06:56 EDT
Article-I.D.: ecsvax.1647
Posted: Mon Jul 15 13:06:56 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 17-Jul-85 20:51:53 EDT
References: <520@leadsv.UUCP>, <359@ucdavis.UUCP>
Organization: Duke U Comp Ctr
Lines: 17
Xref: watmath net.lang:1646 net.women:6431

I don't know if someone else has pointed this out or not, but for what
it's worth several languages make do with no pronoun gender at all (that
is, not an alternative gender-neutral pronoun that means "he or she but
not it" but rather a pronoun system that does not distinguish between
gender or between human and non-human).  Some languages I believe this
is true of (somebody correct me if I'm wrong) are Chinese and the
Finno-Ugric group, which included Hungarian (Magyar), Estonian, and
Finnish.

A minor aside: Dutch nouns carry two genders, but they are not male and
female.  Instead there is neuter and "common" which descended from the
Germanic male and female.
-- 
D Gary Grady
Duke U Comp Center, Durham, NC  27706
(919) 684-3695
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