Faux Genders

From FireSpeakerWiki
Revision as of 04:39, 14 January 2008 by Firespeaker (talk | contribs) (Reverted edits by Firespeaker (Talk); changed back to last version by Hannahbw)
Jump to navigationJump to search

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.

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.

The Chart

Faux Genders
English Latin French Spanish Portuguese Italian Romansh Jèrriais Cotentinais Romanian Occitan Catalan Sardinian Galician
First declension
edge, border ora, orae (1f) la bordure la orla a orla l'orlo (masc) bordură (fem) oru o bordo
Second declension
nose nasus, nasi (2m) le nez la nariz o nariz il naso il nas l'nez nasu o nariz
journey, voyage viaticus, viatici (2m) le voyage el viaje a viagem il viaggio el viatge a viaxe
glass vitrum, vitri (2n) le verre el vidrio o vidro il vetro il vaider l'vèrre bidru o vidro
la vitre l'vitre vetru
Third declension
flower flos, floris (3m) la fleur la flor a flor il fiore la flur la flieur la flleur floare (fem) flore a flor
înflorire (fem) fiore
colour color, coloris (3m) la couleur el color a cor il colore la colur la couleu la couoleu culoare (fem) el color colore a cor
colorit (neut) la color
pain dolor, doloris (3m) la douleur el dolor a dor il dolore durere (fem) el dolore dolore a dor
la dolore
bridge pons, pontis (3m) le pont el puente a ponte il ponte la punt punte (fem) el pǫnt ponte a ponte
ponton; pod (neut.) ponti
inch pollex, pollicis (3m) le pouce la pulgada a polegada il pollice il polesch poddighe (mannu) a polgada
blood sanguis, sanguinis (3m) le sang la sangre o sangue il sangue il sang l'sang sînge ("masc") sang (fem) sanguni o sangue
sang (masc) sangu
salt sal, salis (3m) le sel la sal o sal il sale il sal sare (fem) la sal sale o sal
labor, task, ploughing labor, laboris (3m) le labeur la labor o lavouro il lavoro o labor
le labour
end finis, finis (3m, i-stem) la fin el fin o fim la fine la fin fine o fin
il fine finis
tree arbor, arboris (3f) l'arbre (masc) el árbol a árvore l'albero (masc) l'arbre (masc); l'bouais l'âbre (masc) arvere a árbore
a(l/r)bure
art ars, artis (3f) l'art (masc) el arte a arte l'arte (fem) l'art (masc) l'art (masc) arte a arte
las artes
custom consuetudo, consuetudinis (3f) la coutume la costumbre o costume il costume costumene o costume
origin origo, originis (3f) l'origine (fem) el origen a origem l'origine (fem) origine (fem) origine a orixe
hail grando, grandinis (3f) la grêle el granizo o granizo la grandine la granella
milk lac, lactis (3n) le lait la leche o leite il latte il latg l'lait lapte (neut) lach llet latte o leite
sea mar, maris (3n) la mer el mar o mar il mare la mar la mé la mé mare (fem) mare o mar
honey mel, mellis (3n) le miel la miel o mel il miele miere (fem) el mel miele o mel
la mel
Fourth declension
Fifth declension
ice glacies, glaciei (5f) la glace el hielo o gelo il ghiaccio il glatsch ghiacciu o xeo
landscape le paysage el paisaje a paisagem il paesaggio paesaggiu a paisaxe
cloud nubes, nubis (?f) le nuage la nube a nuvem la nuvola il nivel l'nouage la nuaée nue a nube
valley valles, vallis (?f) la vallée el valle o vale la valle la val la vallée la vall badde o val
valli
flag le drapeau la bandera a bandeira la bandiera la couleu la couoleu a bandeira
spider l'araignée (fem) la araña a aranha il ragno l'pêtre a araña
Neologisms
make-up le maquillage el maquillaje a maquiagem
garage le garage el garaje a garagem la garascha garaj (neut) el garatge o garaxe
car l'auto (fem) el auto o auto l'auto (fem) l'auto (masc) la vaituthe; moto (?) la qùérette; la maringote; l'éto (?) automobil (neut) l'auto (masc)
tomato la tomate el tomate o tomate la tomata la tanmate tomată el tomàquet o tomate
Created from adjectival forms
minute la minute el minuto o minuto il minuto la minuta la minnute la minute minut o minuto
Derived from verbs
conquest la conquète la conquista a conquista la conquista la contchête le conqùet a conquista
shelf l'étagère (fem) el estante a estante o estante

Footnotes

  1. This is the first test footnote 1
  2. This is the second

Back to Linguistic Musings