Let’s Talk About Sex

(and turnips)

All the World’s a TurnipAll the World’s a Turnip

Masculine TurnipsMasculine Turnips Feminine TurnipsFeminine Turnips

Le navet - Le navet - FrenchFrench

El nabo - El nabo - SpanishSpanish

O nabo - O nabo - PortugesePortugese

Die RDie Rübe - übe - GermanGerman

La rapa - La rapa - ItalianItalian

Rapa - LatinRapa - Latin

ТУРНЕПСТУРНЕПС - - RussianRussian

A-Sexual Turnips

Turnip - Turnip - EnglishEnglish Kabura - Kabura -

JapaneseJapanese

Like English, these languages have no gender Like English, these languages have no gender systems, a trait they share with a surprising systems, a trait they share with a surprising number of languages.number of languages.

Nauris - Nauris - FinnishFinnish

Arbi - Arbi - BasqueBasque

Singkamas – Singkamas – TagalogTagalog

PetrezselyemgyPetrezselyemgyökér - ökér - HungarianHungarian

A-Sexual Languages

Afrikaans Armenian Azeri Basque Bengali Bislama Bugis Burmese Cebuano Central Yup’ik

Chinese Chol English Estonian Finnish Georgian Guaraní Hawaiian Hungarian Ilocano Indonesian

More A-Sexual Languages

● Interlingua● Kannada● Khmer● Lao● Lojban● Malagasy● Malay● Malayalam● Makasar● Mande languages

● Papiamentu● Persian● Nahuatl● Pirahã● Quechua● Quenya● Sindarin● Thai● Vietnamese● Yoruba

What is Grammatical Gender?

● Grammatical gender is a form of noun classification● “Gender” from Latin Genus meaning “Kind/type”● Most languages don’t associate grammatical

gender with biological gender

What is a Noun Class?

● A noun class is a grammatical distinction between nouns in a language.

● Not all linguists make a distinction between Grammatical Gender and Noun Class.

● This can be based on:– Animate/Inanimate– Rational/Non-rational– Human/Non-human– Male/Other– Masculine/Feminine/Neuter– Strong/Weak– Augmentative/Diminutive

Why Gender/Noun Class?

Theories● Initially biological- males and females.● Expansion to sexless objects by association

through myth or religion.● A way of identifying and differentiating nouns-

different “its”.

You think 4 noun classes is confusing?

● Swahili has 8 noun classes● Fula has 26● Navaho has 10, including:

– Human Beings– Liquids– Round Things– Long Stiff Things– Long Floppy Things

And also…

● The aboriginal Australian language Dyirbal has four noun classes:

Class 1 Class 2 Class 3 Class 4

Men Women Edible Plants Body Parts

Kangaroos Dogs Meat

Possums Platypus Sound

Most Fish Dangerous Animals

Language

Most Snakes Fire, water Wind

Hunting Weapons

War Weapons Non-edible, non-harmful plants

English – The Linguistic Eunuch

It’s known that English is one of those odd languages that has no gender system.

Old English, however, did. Therefore, at some point, the genders fell out of use, or were eroded out of the language.

Old English - Masculine

stán

Nominative

Accusative

Genitive

Dative

Singular

(se) stán

(þone) stán

(þæs) stánes

(þæm) stáne

Plural

(þá) stánas

(þá) stánas

(þára) stána

(þæm) stánum

scip

Nominative

Accusative

Genitive

Dative

Singular

(þæt) scip

(þæt) scip

(þæs) scipes

(þæm) scipe

Plural

(þá) scipu

(þá) scipu

(þára) scipa

(þæm) scipum

Neuter

giefu

Nominative

Accusative

Genitive

Dative

Singular

(séo) giefu

(þá) giefe

(þære) giefe

(þære) giefe

Plural

(þá) giefa

(þá) giefa

(þára) giefa

(þæm) giefum

Feminine

Traces of Gender

There are, in fact, some traces of gender left over in the English language.

For example, we still utilise “he”, “she”, “it” to distinguish between male and female humans, animals and inanimate objects.

Gender Confusion in the Netherlands

As we all know, the English language has lost its gender system. We can see this happening in the Dutch language.

Gender Systems

Dutch used to maintain a gender system similar to German i.e. masculine, feminine and neuter.

However, the distinction between masculine and feminine is becoming more and more vague.

Dutch Genders

● Dutch has two articles, “de” and “het”. ● “De” is used for both masculine and feminine,

while “het” is used for neuter.● Dutch appears to have experienced an

erosion of gender similar to the one experienced by English.

● As a result, “de witte zout” (the white salt), is identifiable as neither masculine or feminine.

Swedutch?

This erosion that Dutch is experiencing is causing it to reach a stage that is similar to Swedish which has neuter and common gender.

Perhaps these are the final days of genders in Dutch.

Just to confuse you: a different type of confusion, particularly regarding milk and eggs

LacLac MasculineMasculine

Le lait Le lait

Il latteIl latte

O leiteO leite

FeminineFeminine

La lecheLa leche

La lletLa llet

Eggs…and the mysterious ‘IT’

Italian eggsItalian eggs

L’uovoL’uovo

Le uovaLe uova

FrenchFrench

Celui-ciCelui-ci

Celle-ciCelle-ci

CeciCeci

SpanishSpanish

ÉsteÉste

ÉstaÉsta

EstoEsto

ItalianItalian

GliGli

LeLe

Ci Ci

Super Surveys

French German YOU

Sun Masc Fem Masc

Tree Masc Masc Neuter

Fish Masc Fem Masc

Bird Masc Masc Masc/Neuter

Turnip Masc Fem Masc

Carrot Fem Fem Masc

Gravy Fem Fem Fem

Water Fem Neuter Fem

Sky Masc Masc Neuter

And finally, for your entertainment…

We were going to give you a quiz. We’ve decided against that, so instead, here are some of the titles we came up with:

● A Question of Sprout● The Weakest Leek● I’m a Celery, Get Me Out of Here● Who Wants to Be a Potato-aire (we think this one’s stupid as

well)● 24 Carrot Quiz● Uni-broccoli Challenge

Turnip, or not turnip? That is the question.

Mark Twain – Without whom this presentation would not exist.

““In German, a In German, a young lady has no young lady has no sex, while a turnip sex, while a turnip has.” – The Awful has.” – The Awful German LanguageGerman Language