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From: jpexg@mit-hermes.ARPA (John Purbrick)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Gender-specific neuter pronouns
Message-ID: <2288@mit-hermes.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 4-Feb-85 12:41:33 EST
Article-I.D.: mit-herm.2288
Posted: Mon Feb  4 12:41:33 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 9-Feb-85 06:07:44 EST
References: <437@ptsfa.UUCP> <1285@bbncca.ARPA> <2285@mit-hermes.ARPA> <655@voder.UUCP>
Organization: The MIT AI Lab, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 18

> > Harrumph, harrumph. Then I'd expect that 'homo' would be of neuter gender, 
> > which Latin provides, but it's male. The "default sex" in Latin is male.

> Gender in Latin is a grammatical category, not a sex.  Examples are the
> two feminine nouns `agricola' and `nauta' - farmer and sailor; these
> nouns almost invariably described MEN.

'Nauta', 'agricola' and 'poeta' are all masculine. Their feminine form is just
a grammmatical irregularity. Thus 'Poeta vetus'--The old poet.
Replyers to my original posting don't seem to know any more about 'homo' than
I did. In fact it is of "common" gender, that is, it is masculine or feminine
depending on who is being described. But as I didn't quite say, masculine is 
the "default gender". How about 'Homines veti vetaeque'?--The old folks (of
both sexes)?

As for 'personne' in French, native French speakers assure me as everyone else 
has, that if you introduce your characters as 'personnes', they stay female.