Bullshit people claim about languages, part #94731

[pauamma]

But the fact of the matter is that gender is a linguistic term with a hard meaning.
So is "etymological fallacy"For example, all languages have gender pronouns, [...]
Er, no. Not even most, and even of those who do, a large number don't use sex as a basis for assigning gender.

(Inspired by some statements in idiotolects, pronouns, gender, possessives

Comments

[pne]

A favourite European counterexample is Finnish, which not only has no gendered pronouns (only an animate/inanimate distinction in the 3rd person) - but at least in colloquial language, tends to use the inanimate pronoun universally! (Effectively calling everything and everybody "it".)

neat!

[locriansax]

Heh, that is interesting to know about Finnish (didn't know that!), as I *think* most English speakers use "they" in English when one is unsure of the gender of the person or wish to hide it to not reveal identity in conversation.

Re: neat!

[ammesor0]

Agreed. I feel like only the Bible consistently uses he/man to refer to everyone.

Re: neat!

[marnanel]

I'd imagine that depended on the translation you were reading.

Re: neat!

[biascut]

Crikey, I wish. It was used almost universally until about fifty years ago.