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The Awful German Language (1880)

(faculty.georgetown.edu)
187 points nalinidash | 1 comments | 16 May 25 04:09 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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ycuser2 ◴[16 May 25 04:37 UTC] No.44001883[source]▶
"Tomcat" is male in German, not female: Der Kater.

"Wife" is female in German, not neutral: Die Ehefrau. "Weib" is old language and rude to use these days.

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bradley13 ◴[16 May 25 06:19 UTC] No.44002319[source]▶
And a girl is a "Mädchen", which is neuter, even though a boys is a "Knabe" and definitely male.

Amongst guys, women are still sometimes referred collectively to as "Weiber".

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jotaen ◴[16 May 25 06:37 UTC] No.44002405[source]▶
Fun fact: “Das Mädchen” (“little girl”, neuter) is diminutive form for “Die Mad” (“girl”, female).

All diminutives in German are neuter, for whatever reason. You could do the same for “Der Knabe” (“boy”) → “Das Knäbchen” (“little boy”).

Curiously, saying “Die Mad” would be as uncommon – at least nowadays – as saying “Das Knäbchen”.

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1. umanwizard ◴[16 May 25 09:36 UTC] No.44003420[source]▶
> All diminutives in German are neuter, for whatever reason

It’s just one instance of the more general principle that the gender of nouns with a common suffix are based on the suffix. E.g. all nouns ending in -keit or -ung are feminine regardless of whether they have any connection to the biological female sex.