Faux Genders
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Jump to navigationJump to searchFaux Genders is a perhaps misleading term referring to cognates in the Romance languages which are not consistent in grammatical gender (noun class) from one language to the next.
Following is a collection of some examples of these.
History
This project was originally started as a random exercise, with the following explanation:
Spanish and French, both being Romance languages, have a gender attribute to their nouns. Also, being related, many words have the same origin. These are called cognates. In French, cognates that don't have the same meaning as their source are called faux amis. Having studied French before Spanish, and not ever having been good at remembering what gender a given noun was in French, I found it convenient to rely on Spanish when I needed a noun's gender, since remembering a noun's gender in Spanish is as simple as learning only a few rules and a handful of exceptions. However, it turns out that not all French-Spanish cognates have the same gender, though probably well over 90% do.[1]
Here's a small compilation of exceptions that Jonathan North Washington, Hannah Beth Washington, George Martin Fell Brown, and Michael-Forest Meservy have been able to collect.
This data is now being collected for Hannah's B.A. thesis.
The Chart
| English | Latin | Romanian | Portuguese | Galician | Spanish | Catalan | Occitan | French | Jèrriais | Cotentinais | Romansh | Italian | Sardinian |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First declension | |||||||||||||
| edge, border | ora, orae (1f) | a orla | la orla | l'orlo (masc) | oru | ||||||||
| Second declension | |||||||||||||
| nose | nasus, nasi (2m) | o nariz | o nariz | l a nariz | el nas | le nez | l'nez | il nas | il naso | nasu | |||
| journey, voyage | viaticus, viatici (2m) | a viagem | a viaxe | el viaje | el viatge | le voyage | il viaggio | ||||||
| glass | vitrum, vitri (2n) | o vidro | o vidro | el vidrio | le verre | l'vèrre | il vaider | il vetro | bidru | ||||
| la vitre | l'vitre | vetru | |||||||||||
| Third declension | |||||||||||||
| ear | auris, auris (3f) | ureche (fem) | a orelha | a orella | la oreja | l'orella (fem) | l'oreille (fem) | l'orecchio (masc)[2] | orija | ||||
| auricula, auriculae (1f) | le orecchie | ||||||||||||
| flower[3] | flos, floris (3m) | floare (fem) | a flor | a flor | la flor | la flor | la fleur[4] | la flieur | la flleur | la flur | il fiore | flore | |
| înflorire (fem) | fiore | ||||||||||||
| colour | color, coloris (3m) | culoare (fem) | a cor | a cor | el color[5] | el color[6] | la couleur | la couleu | la couoleu | la colur | il colore | colore | |
| colorit (neut) | la color | ||||||||||||
| pain | dolor, doloris (3m) | durere (fem) | a dor | a dor | el dolor | el dolore[6] | la douleur | il dolore | dolore | ||||
| la dolore | |||||||||||||
| bridge | pons, pontis (3m) | punte (fem) | a ponte | a ponte | el puente | el pǫnt | le pont | la punt | il ponte | ponte | |||
| ponton; pod (neut.) | ponti | ||||||||||||
| tooth | dens, dentis (3m) | dinte (masc) | o dente | o dente | el diente | la dent[7] | il dente | dente | |||||
| inch | pollex, pollicis (3m) | a polegada | a polgada | la pulgada | le pouce | il polesch | il pollice | poddighe (mannu) | |||||
| blood | sanguis, sanguinis (3m) | sînge ("masc") | o sangue | o sangue | la sangre | la sang | sang (fem) | le sang | l'sang | il sang | il sangue | sanguni | |
| sang (masc) | sambene | ||||||||||||
| salt | sal, salis (3m) | sare (fem) | o sal | o sal | la sal[8] | la sal | le sel | il sal | il sale | sale | |||
| labor, task, ploughing | labor, laboris (3m) | o lavouro | o labor | la labor | la labor | le labeur | il lavoro | ||||||
| le labour | |||||||||||||
| dust, powder | pulvis, pulveris (3m) | pulbere (fem) | a poeira | a poeira | el polvo | la pols | la poussière | la polvere | piuere | ||||
| la poudre | |||||||||||||
| end | finis, finis (3m, i-stem) | o fim | o fin | el fin | el fi | la fin | la fin | la fine | fine | ||||
| la fi | il fine | finis | |||||||||||
| sweat | sudor, sudoris (3m) | sudoare fem) | o suor | o suor | el sudor | el suor[6] | la sueur | il sudore | suore | ||||
| la suor | la suée | ||||||||||||
| warmth, heat | calor, caloris (3m) | căldură fem) | o calor | o calor | el calor[5] | el calor[6] | la chaleur | il calore | il calore | ||||
| la calor | |||||||||||||
| tree | arbor, arboris (3f) | a árvore | a árbore | el árbol[9] | el arbre | l'arbre (masc)[10] | l'arbre (masc); l'bouais | l'âbre (masc) | l'albero (masc) | árbures[11] | |||
| a(l/r)bure | |||||||||||||
| art | ars, artis (3f) | a arte | a arte | el arte | el arte | l'art (masc)[12] | l'art (masc) | l'art (masc) | l'arte (fem) | arte | |||
| las artes | l'arte (fem) | ||||||||||||
| custom | consuetudo, consuetudinis (3f) | o costume | o costume | la costumbre | la coutume | il costume | costumene | ||||||
| origin | origo, originis (3f) | origine (fem) | a origem | a orixe | el origen[13] | el origen | l'origine (fem) | l'origine (fem) | origine | ||||
| hail | grando, grandinis (3f) | o granizo | el granizo | la grêle | la granella | la grandine | |||||||
| milk | lac, lactis (3n) | lapte (neut) | o leite | o leite | la leche | la llet | lach | le lait | l'lait | il latg | il latte | latte | |
| sea | mar, maris (3n) | mare (fem) | o mar | o mar | el mar | el mar[14] | la mer[15] | la mé | la mé | la mar | il mare | mare | |
| la mar | |||||||||||||
| honey | mel, mellis (3n) | miere (fem) | o mel | o mel | la miel | el mel | le miel | il miele | miele | ||||
| la mel | |||||||||||||
| Fourth declension | |||||||||||||
| Fifth declension | |||||||||||||
| ice | glacies, glaciei (5f) | o gelo | o xeo | el hielo | la glace | il glatsch | il ghiaccio | ghiacciu | |||||
| landscape | a paisagem | a paisaxe | el paisaje | le paysage | il paesaggio | paesaggiu | |||||||
| cloud | nubes, nubis (?f) | a nuvem | a nube | la nube | el núvol | le nuage | l'nouage | la nuaée | il nivel | la nuvola | nue | ||
| valley | valles, vallis (?f) | o vale | o val | el valle[16] | la vall | la vallée | la vallée | la val | la valle | badde | |||
| valli | |||||||||||||
| flag | a bandeira | a bandeira | la bandera | le drapeau | la couleu | la couoleu | la bandiera | ||||||
| spider | a aranha | a araña | la araña | l'araignée (fem) | l'pêtre | il ragno | |||||||
| Neologisms | |||||||||||||
| make-up | a maquiagem | el maquillaje | le maquillage | ||||||||||
| garage | garaj (neut) | a garagem | o garaxe | el garaje | el garatge | le garage | la garascha | ||||||
| car | automobil (neut) | o auto | el auto | l'auto (masc) | l'auto (fem) | la vaituthe; moto (?) | la qùérette; la maringote; l'éto (?) | l'auto (masc) | l'automobile (fem) | ||||
| tomato[17] | tomată | o tomate | o tomate | el tomate | el tomàquet | la tomate | la tanmate | la tomata | |||||
| edge, border | bordură (fem) | o bordo | la bordure | ||||||||||
| yam[18] | o inhame | el ñame | l'igname (fem) | l'igname (masc) | |||||||||
| Created from adjectival forms | |||||||||||||
| minute | minut | o minuto | o minuto | el minuto | la minute | la minnute | la minute | la minuta | il minuto | ||||
| Derived from verbs | |||||||||||||
| conquest | a conquista | a conquista | la conquista | la conquète | la contchête | le conqùet | la conquista | ||||||
| shelf | a estante | o estante | el estante | l'étagère (fem) | |||||||||
Footnotes
- ↑ In light of Richard V. Teschner's 1986 study ("The Genders of French and Spanish Noun Cognates: Some Statistics and a List" from The Canadian Modern Language Review, Jan. 1986: 256-66), this guesstimate can be revised. Teschner found 14,966 noun cognates between French and Spanish, of which 13,825 have the same grammatical gender; this indicates that 92.38% of French cognates with Spanish share the same gender.
- ↑ This is one of several irregular plural formations in Italian. More common irregular formations in Italian appear with a masculine singular noun ending in -o, which changes to a feminine noun in the plural with its ending in -a. Examples of these "plurali irregolari" are: il braccio-le braccia, il ciglio-le ciglia, il labbro-le labbra, l'uovo (m)-le uova, il dito-le dita, il riso-le risa ('laughter'), l'osso (m)-le ossa, il ginocchio-le ginocchia, etc. Interestingly enough, Polinsky and Van Everbroek inform us that lèvre in Old French was variable - sometimes masculine, sometimes feminine - while, in modern French, lèvre 'lip' is feminine (“Development of Gender Classifications: Modeling the Historical Change from Latin to French”, Language, 79.2 (Jun., 2003): 356-90).
- ↑ According to Rolhfs, the case of flos, floris (m) adopting questionable gender in modern Romance languages has to do with the same factors that cause abstract Latin nouns in -or from the third declension to illustrate the same sorts of issues. He cites the fact that this word in modern Romances has the semantic value of both 'flower' and 'blossom', and suggests that flos is therefore not completely concrete. Thus, he makes a case for the classification of flos, floris as abstract ("Aspects du latin vulgaire examiné à travers la géographie linguistique", Travaux de Linguistique et de Litterature, 17.1 (1979), 7-25). See the footnote following fleur for a different approach.
- ↑ Many abstract words with the accusative singular in -orem became feminine in French (e.g., dolor (masc) > douleur (fem)). The nonabstract 'flower' supposedly followed suit, according to historical grammars, which appeal to analogy and abstractness. Polinsky and Van Everbroek suggest that a better explanation would be analogy to nonabstract feminine nouns in -orem that occur with high frequency, e.g., suror 'sister', and uxor 'spouse' (“Development of Gender Classifications: Modeling the Historical Change from Latin to French”, Language, 79.2 (Jun., 2003): 356-90).
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 According to Ralph Penny (A History of the Spanish Language, Cambridge: University Press (2002), 125), Spanish 'calor' and 'color' were usually feminine in Old Spanish but revert to masculine after the Golden Age. Penny also mentions that these two nouns remain feminine in regional speech.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Zenenko states that nouns ending in -orem (in the accusative) are generally masculine in Latin but often develop into feminine nouns in Ibero-Romance. However, in the case of Catalan, these nouns are almost exclusively masculine in the spoken language, with the feminine equivalent appearing more and more in formal writing (“Acerca de la manifestación del género de los sustantivos y adjetivos como categoría grammatical en las lenguas romances ibéricas”, Verba, 10.1 (1983): 231-247).
- ↑ According to Rohlfs 1979, this phenomenon can be explained thusly: la dent developed as a feminine noun due to the influence of MOLA 'molar' and was reinforced by the feminine MENS, MENTIS, which has the same structure in the declension paradigm.
- ↑ 'Sal' is feminine in Spanish except in the Northwest of Spain (Penny 125).
- ↑ 'Árbol' was often still feminine in Old Spanish (Penny 125).
- ↑ According to Polinsky & Van Everbroek, the traditional view of the development of l'arbre (masc) is the following: when tree names in Latin (which were feminine and ended in -us) became masculine nouns due to their similarities with second declension masculine nouns, Old French arbor became masculine by analogy. The authors, however, believe that a more plausible explanation would be that arbor became masculine around the same time that many nonabstract Latin nouns in -orem became masculine in early Old French. However, the majority of such nouns started as neuter in Latin. For example, Lat. cor > OFr. coeur 'heart' (“Development of Gender Classifications: Modeling the Historical Change from Latin to French”, Language, 79.2 (Jun., 2003): 356-90).
- ↑ This noun appears in Gerhard Rohlf's article "Aspects du latin vulgaire examiné à travers la géographie linguistique", published in Travaux de Linguistique et de Litterature, 17.1 (1979).
- ↑ Old French art was of variable M/F gender (Polinsky & Van Everbroek 364).
- ↑ 'Origen' was feminine in Latin and Spanish until the Golden Age (Penny 125).
- ↑ The two gender options refer to differences in semantic value. El mar refers to the general mass or body of water. La mar refers to a specific body of water (i.e., a named sea) or a large mass of any other kind of liquid (e.g., a sea of blood, a sea of tears, etc.).
- ↑ Polinsky and Van Everbroek cite Meyer-Lübke and Pope, who believe that mare changed from the neuter in Latin to the feminine in Old French by analogy with terra 'land'.
- ↑ Old Spanish 'la val' was feminine (Penny 125).
- ↑ This word is adapted from Nahuatlan tomatl (compare with the Latinate word seen in the Italian pomodoro). For further information, see William A. Read's Louisiana-French (Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 1931, pg 149).
- ↑ According to Read 1931, the Portuguese and Spanish forms have their origins in West African niami, niambi, and that the African forms derive from Arabic gambah, 'yam-like root' (150). The French and Italian forms are adaptations from Spanish and Portuguese. Interestingly, the Louisiana-French version is yamme and is feminine, not having suffered from Spanish influence.
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