Why do some languages use gendered nouns? It seems to just add more complexity for no benefit.

    • Hyperreality@kbin.social
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      9 months ago

      For example, you hear a word that sounds (exactly/a bit) like another word, and can tell it’s not that other word, because the other word has a different gender. Or you only really need to learn one word because both are very similar. Some examples:

      Spanish : La Nina/La Nino. Both basically the same world (female/male child) and sound the same, unlike boy/girl in English.

      Dutch : Het jacht = the boat / yacht, de jacht = the hunt. No need to guess the meaning of the word from the context, you can go by gender.

      Spanish: El Capital = Capital as in money, La Capital = Capital as in Capital City.

      French: Un Livre = a book. La livre = pound sterling.

          • Ashy@lemmy.wtf
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            9 months ago

            I agree that German is concise. I just don’t see what the gendered nouns are contributing to that quality or any other one.

            • Lath@kbin.social
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              9 months ago

              Who said anything about gendered nouns? The question was about greater complexity making things easier.
              In my eyes, the German language achieves that.

              • Ashy@lemmy.wtf
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                9 months ago

                Who said anything about gendered nouns?

                The title of this post is “Why do some languages use gendered nouns?” …

                  • Ashy@lemmy.wtf
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                    9 months ago

                    But that comment is in response to a another comment that is direclty about the title … did you just forgot the context of the entire conversation only 2 replies in?

    • 6mementomori@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      try making a really simple language, and figure out that it gets really difficult to speak because you start confusing shit. excessive complexity isn’t good either but some complexity is needed, and gender gives some of that. I have nothing to back this up though

    • Moghul@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      This is an off the cuff example. Yes you can rephrase to get around this. It’s just an example.

      The chair and the table don’t go together because it’s made of wood.

      The chair and the table don’t go together because it’s made(female version) of wood.

      Since you ‘know’ tables get female articles and such, you know the speaker is talking about the table and not the chair. This is how Romanian works.

      Yes, I am aware that singular chairs are male and plural chairs are female in Romanian which wouldn’t clarify anything if the sentence was “The chairs and the tables don’t go together because they’re made(female version) of wood.”