Thread: Learning German
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Old 11-04-2007, 18:28   #48
haku haku is offline
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Regarding the logic (or lack of) of grammatical genders in European languages…

From what i've read, the original 3 genders in Proto-Indo-European were "inanimate", "animate with male qualities", and "animate with female qualities". That seems logical enough, except that Proto-Indo-European people were animist and many things or objects that we consider inanimate today were considered animate by them… plants, animals, natural elements and phenomenas like water, fire, wind, storms, thunder, rivers, mountains, etc, and also many objects manufactured by man were all considered animate with male or female qualities.
Of course with time the system became less and less logical and more and more arbitrary in daughter languages.
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