Murder most foul

[metadigital]

As Imperialist said, individual ships yes, but one would never say "her navy" or "her army".

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Do you say "his navy" ?

[Lucius]

No, we don't mention genders at all really (except for living things). You're obsessed with the gender thing!

[metadigital]

No, we don't mention genders at all really (except for living things). You're obsessed with the gender thing!   

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

No, I'm obsessed with truth! I have been trying the get the facts!

 

So you would say "Denmark is a mighty nation. It's navy is large and powerful. ..."

 

You heartless germanic b*****.

 

j/k

 

 

On a less serious note, when I asked a Dutch friend on mine where he lived, he proceeded to explain it was near the German boarder by saying "It's almost in Germany ...".

I responded by saying "So, you're almost German, then?"

 

Became a standard wind-up from then on. ... The Dutch don't like the Germans much, do they ... "

[Lucius]

No, we don't mention genders at all really (except for living things). You're obsessed with the gender thing!   

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

No, I'm obsessed with truth! I have been trying the get the facts!

 

So you would say "Denmark is a mighty nation. It's navy is large and powerful. ..."

 

You heartless germanic b*****.

 

j/k

Yeah, we would use 'its' at all times instead of applying a gender in cases such as this. Don't ask me why though, the Germans apply genders to everything ffs! Hence all those capital letters popping up in the strangest of places. Some also do it when writing in English too because it comes natural to them, kinda cute really. ^_^

 

Oh and don't call the Dutch Germans, it would be the same as calling me a Swede, only worse. Meh, historical issues I guess, nationalism at its best.

[metadigital]

Yeah, we would use 'its' at all times instead of applying a gender in cases such as this. Don't ask me why though, the Germans apply genders to everything ffs! Hence all those capital letters popping up in the strangest of places. Some also do it when writing in English too because it comes natural to them, kinda cute really. ^_^

 

Oh and don't call the Dutch Germans, it would be the same as calling me a Swede, only worse. Meh, historical issues I guess, nationalism at its best.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Or the Fins Russian ... "

[FaramirK]

Yeah, we would use 'its' at all times instead of applying a gender in cases such as this. Don't ask me why though, the Germans apply genders to everything ffs! Hence all those capital letters popping up in the strangest of places. Some also do it when writing in English too because it comes natural to them, kinda cute really. ^_^

 

Oh and don't call the Dutch Germans, it would be the same as calling me a Swede, only worse. Meh, historical issues I guess, nationalism at its best.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Or the Fins Russian ... "

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Don't even start...

[metadigital]

Or the Taiwanese aren't Chinese ... "

[Noceur]

Sweden "is a she".

Moder Svea (Mother Svea)... sorta like Mother Russia. Svea was one of the... err, parts of Sweden back before it became Sweden (Or Sverige, rather).

 

Right now I can't remember the name of a single other part of sweden back then.

Oh right... G

[metadigital]

Sweden "is a she".

Moder Svea (Mother Svea)... sorta like Mother Russia. Svea was one of the... err, parts of Sweden back before it became Sweden (Or Sverige, rather).

 

Right now I can't remember the name of a single other part of sweden back then.

Oh right... G

[Noceur]

Sweden "is a she".

Moder Svea (Mother Svea)... sorta like Mother Russia. Svea was one of the... err, parts of Sweden back before it became Sweden (Or Sverige, rather).

 

Right now I can't remember the name of a single other part of sweden back then.

Oh right... G

[Lucius]

Military is all three branches, so you got it right. Or do you mean Armed Forces?

 

It's the same in the Danish army (I was in the actual army), we would just say "yes sir, major"... sound silly in English, in Danish it would be "ja hr. major", and if it's a female then you're not allowed to say 'hr' (sir) or 'fru' (ma'am), you'd have to spot the name of the female officer and pronounce it in full with title and everything... talk about sexist (against us males, that is) <_<

 

Also, here we don't say mother nature, we just call it 'mother earth'. But it's still one of the few exceptions where we use gender for something non living. (or is it living? dunno) But we certainly don't call oceans "her", they too are neutered.

[Noceur]

Military is all three branches, so you got it right. Or do you mean Armed Forces?

 

It's the same in the Danish army (I was in the actual army), we would just say "yes sir, major"... sound silly in English, in Danish it would be "ja hr. major", and if it's a female then you're not allowed to say 'hr' (sir) or 'fru' (ma'am), you'd have to spot the name of the female officer and pronounce it in full with title and everything... talk about sexist (against us males, that is)  <_<

 

Also, here we don't say mother nature, we just call it 'mother earth'. But it's still one of the few exceptions where we use gender for something non living. (or is it living? dunno) But we certainly don't call oceans "her", they too are neutered. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yeah, it's mother earth here too.

In the swedish military you don't say "mr. Captain" and stuff though, just "captain" etc. (Ja, Kapten!)

I was in the army, as well.

I think we refer to things as the sea, the sun and such as "it" most of the time. In normal speech that is. I don't know why ships are different

 

EDIT: You know, to this day I'm still not sure what you're supposed to do when you meet more than one ranking officers (of different ranks). Because it's just silly to say good day to each of them individually.

[metadigital]

Ships are probably regarded as female because most sailors were traditionally male, and they were dealing with something they had to treat with respect and never knew how she would react under duress, e.g. in a storm.

 

What is interesting is that the germanic languages do refer to the Earth as a female (mother nature). This probably harks back the ancient Mother Earth Godess.

[Noceur]

What is interesting is that the germanic languages do refer to the Earth as a female (mother nature). This probably harks back the ancient Mother Earth Godess.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Most definately. Which is weird though, because in the old viking religion this giant dude died and his brains became the clouds and blood the oceans and his hair the trees etc. The term mother nature probably wasn't used back then, but when later adapted to swedish the gender naturally followed.

[metadigital]

Most definately. Which is weird though, because in the old viking religion this giant dude died and his brains became the clouds and blood the oceans and his hair the trees etc. The term mother nature probably wasn't used back then, but when later adapted to swedish the gender naturally followed.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Maybe the old dude fell on mother earth? :D

[Yst]

As for English noun gender up until the point in history when grammatical noun gender died out (11th and 12th centuries), it's arguable that English favoured a feminine 'earth', I think. Though the Anglo-Saxons did not literally associate feminine grammatical gender with feminine anatomical gender in any way, so it's purely a historical relic.

 

Some words for "earth" or "the earth" in Old English along with their genders follow. Keep in mind that the Anglo-Saxons didn't tend to think of the 'earth' in the planetary sense we do now, and 'earth' in that larger sense tends to be a theological concept (that which God created; the realm into which men are born and from which their souls depart) where it does appear. The single morphemes implying 'earth' most literally are Feminine in gender, I find:

 

 

e

[Lucius]

Sweoland is an old name for Sweden? And what would be old English for Denmark then?

[Darth Flatus]

March of the Danes? i dunno just guessing..

[Yst]

Sweoland is an old name for Sweden? And what would be old English for Denmark then?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Beowulf simply uses "land dena" and "dena land", but "denemearce" and "denamearc" are also attested.

 

e.g., a particularly geographically rich passage

 

& of Sciringesheale he cw

[Lucius]

Well a 'mark' is essentially a piece of land. So that makes sense I think.

 

Also, quite an interesting language, never read any of it before. Some of the words seems familiar. Especially the letter "

[Yst]

The Danish language's similarities to Old English are a strange historical coincidence, as they are indeed not part of the same branch of the Germanic language tree. Partly due to borrowing from the Danes and partly due to similar spelling masking quite deceptively what is in fact very disimilar pronunciation, they can appear to share a great deal.

 

In reality, Modern German is the language which shares the most with Old English among major European languages. So much so that I'll sometimes be caught off guard by long strings of wholly intelligible Old English cognate words in German writing or speech.

 

For example, taking the following verse from the song "Du Hast" and translating to Old English, one gets

 

German: Du hast mich gefragt und ich hab nichts gesagt.

Old English:

[Lucius]

Indeed, that particular sentence looks a lot like German. But does that mean that German haven't evolved that much in the past 1000 years? Or is it just purely coincidential that it now reminds you of Old English at times?