On Feb 9, 2007, at 8:55 PM, Dale Raby wrote:
> The most grief is encountered in German is trying to remember that
> each noun
> in German has a gender derived article attached to it, der, die, or
> das,
> which are masculine, feminine, and neuter. They don't always follow
> logically, however. Das Fraulein, is neuter, and a young woman is
> properly
> referred to in German as "es", or "it". Following proper Gramatik
> will not
> get you laid, in this case, however. It might get you laughed at,
> though.
German native here.
The ending "-chen" and "-lein" is used to describe the small or young
version of something, and always makes the main object an "it". So
"Mädchen" (girl) derives from "Magd" (female farm servant). Adding
the "-chen" - in ancient times - reflected that she was not yet a
woman, hence an "it". There is no male equivalent.
Yes, it is a weird language.
Matthias
---- http://robowerk.com/ -- This is the NewtonTalk list - http://www.newtontalk.net/ for all inquiries Official Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/ WikiWikiNewt for all kinds of articles: http://tools.unna.org/wikiwikinewt/Received on Fri Feb 9 18:01:54 2007
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