Re: [OT] Grammatic gender

[N. Andrew Walsh]

On Thu, Nov 16, 2017 at 3:04 AM, David Wright <address@hidden> wrote:

> German: "Das Mädchen aß seine Mahlzeit.".
>
> >> > It may seem so, because the articles for all three genders are the
> >> > same, but words are referred to by ‘he’, ‘she’, or ‘it’. In
> >> > English the sun is male, the moon female

Think so, grammatically?

Since this is already well off-topic, I'd like to ask a general question of the German speakers here: the Constitutional Court recently ruled that forcing people born in Germany to identify only as either male or female on official documentation is discriminatory (for a number of reasons, including: some people cannot be biologically categorized as entirely one or the other, some people are mis-assigned, some people don't identify that way, etc.). The court provided two possible remedies: either add a third category (presumably "unspecified"), or strike sex from official documentation entirely. 

Since German *does* use gendered pronouns, what do you imagine is likely to happen here, as people start entering into adult life with no specified male or female gender? As noted above, referring to biological organisms, much less people, with the neuter pronoun would likely be considered unacceptable. So what do you imagine is likely to happen here? Is the Duden going to start establishing what is effectively a fourth gender category? 

As a consummate mannerist, I'm in favor of all linguistic expansion. 

Also, an excellent source for English Usage is Garner's "Modern English Usage," which notes that when deciding on "-ic" vs. "-ical," it is best simply to consult several dictionaries for prevalent usage, using both where they have different meanings (as with "historic" vs. "historical"), and avoiding needless differentiation elsewhere (as with "biologic" or "ecologic"). Garner uses "grammatical," for what that's worth.

Cheers,

A