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In everyday speaking? I know there are languages that use words in place of our he/she/her/him that simply refer to an unidentified individual of any gender like "one" but more commonly used.

That is aramaic not arabic btw

2007-03-04 15:37:28 · 4 answers · asked by ☺☻☺☻☺☻ 6 in Society & Culture Languages

4 answers

Yes Aramaic is a gender-inflected language even though in later dialects there has been some move towards gender neutrality when spoken with a small number of verbal forms and personal pronouns.

For example here are the most common personal pronouns that are generally shared between dialects:

אנא - pronounced "ena" which means "I"

אנת - pronounced "aht" which means "you" (masculine singular)
אנתי - pronounced "aht" which means "you" (feminine singular). In Old Aramaic was probably pronounced "antee" but over time simply shortened (in speech) so that the singular "you" was either gender.

הו - pronounced "hoo" which means "he"
הי - pronounced "hee" which means "she"

חנן pronounced "khenan" or אנחנן pronounced "anakhnan" which means "we"

אנתון - pronounced "atoon" which means "you" (masculine plural).
אנתיןּ - pronounced "ateyn" which means "you" (feminine plural).

הנון - pronounced "henoon" which means "they" (masculine)
הנין - pronounced "heneyn" which means "they" (feminine)

In general, if the object referred to does not have a physical gender (or the gender is unknown), it is referred to by its grammatical gender (as nouns in Aramaic can be masculine or feminine like French, Spanish, and other such languages) or if all else fails, whatever the speaker feels like (which is by rule of thumb, in written accounts, masculine).

One can also use the word חד pronounced "khad" which means "one" much like the word is used in the opening of this sentence. (However, even "khad" can be used in it's masculine form, as I've written it, or its feminine form חדא "khdha", but is generally used in its masculine form as gender-neutral) :-)

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A note to ndrw3987:

Aramaic is Semitic, not Indo-European, and it does not have a neuter gender. :-)

2007-03-05 13:06:33 · answer #1 · answered by Steve Caruso 4 · 0 0

In German, as interior the Romance languages, the genders have been chosen some time past in a prehistoric language stated as Indo-ecu. So your instructors are perfect. Now there have been some motives yet those days they might seem politically incorrect. So your instructors are perfect to not flow there. ultimately, rather much each and every little thing it extremely is precis is female. After the Indo-Europeans, each and each language desperate a number of the genders and so this is not each and each of an analogous in German and in French case in point. yet commonly the techniques come from the Indo-ecu people.

2016-10-17 07:20:26 · answer #2 · answered by ? 4 · 0 0

Yes, as in most Semetic* languages (what was I thinkin'). Just two that I've found, masculine and feminine, but I find it entirely possible that their is a neuter or all-encompassing gender, as in the ancient Greek Bible. (But there isn't, nevermind!)

Just side note: if you're asking because you want to know if God was referred to as masculine or feminine, I feel that it's a huge fallacy in Indo-European language to use pronouns that categorize the world into male and female.
One of the big arguments is, "But man was made in God's image, he must be a male." As an eternal pan-dimensional being, he doesn't need to have sex, he doesn't need to have a gender, and he doesn't need to be categorized to fit our schemas of male/female. The scripture merely means that we have a soul, and women have them too.

2007-03-04 15:46:54 · answer #3 · answered by ndrw3987 3 · 1 1

i think they have words for him or her, but like hebrew and arabic, they also have words that don't distinguist masculine and feminine. in the aramic manuscripts of the Bible, God isn't man nor women.. God is just.. not distinguished lol

2007-03-04 15:44:51 · answer #4 · answered by Me lol 2 · 1 1

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