patrick.net

Note the vertical columns include three singular genders, plus a unisex plural, @Patrick.

Curious, you're back, man. Happy to see ya.

Yes, welcome back @curious2

The plural uses the feminine, with the exception of the dative (indirect object). Lots of languages associate the plural and feminine. I think this is because reproduction is associated at some deep level with women more than with men.

Another interesting tidbit about gender in German is the pretty obvious symbolism of the gender of certain words. For example tower (der Turm) is masculine, while tunnel (die Tunnel) is feminine. Children are oddly neuter (das Kind).

@ Patrick Der Tunnel has the masculine article der , not the fem. "die".
Articles are partly connnected to actual gender, but not always. For example the word "Person has the article "die" , which is feminin, but of course can be man. Das Mädchen (girl) in German is only neutral , because of the ending -chen, it replaced over centuries the older German word "die Maid" for the girl.
Quote: By adding “chen” to the end of any word, it will automatically become the German Diminutive (meaning, a tiny or cuter version of itself) – and always carry the article “das”. For example DER TISCH –> DAS TISCHCHEN."
Another example, das Herrchen (little Mister) or das Frauchen (little Mrs) are words for pet owners, but you don't lose your gender with owning an animal.
The four cases above are only define the function of a noun or pronoun in a sentence, similiar like in English the "I" - the nominative subject versus the "me" the accusative object', and "mine" which is the genitive and shows belonging. Not that hard. Interesting fact in German "sun" die Sonne is female and "moon", der Mond is male , in other languages (Italian, French, Spanish) it's the other way around.

Patrick says

Lots of languages associate the plural and feminine. I think this is because....

Availability heuristic: the languages one thinks of are not necessarily a representative sample of human languages generally.

In French and Spanish, the default "they" is masculine (French "ils," Spanish "ellos"). If a group of 20 people contains even one male, it's masculine "ils"/"ellos". Likewise, in Spanish, if you have one son ("hijo") and four daughters ("hijas"), then your children are collectively your "hijos". In most Scandinavian languages, "child" and "children" are neuter, but there are specific words for "boy" and "girl".

There is often no apparent logic to the gender of other nouns, and they can even undergo gender reassignment. For more than 1,000 years, "color" was either neuter or masculine in Latin. in Spanish, it remains masculine ("el color"). In French, it underwent gender reassignment, and became feminine (la couleur). In Spanish, "the bird" can in general be either masculine ("el pájaro") or feminine ("la ave") regardless of the actual sex of the bird. Language evolves based on usage.

Likewise in nature, many animals can spontaneously change sex, e.g. as an adaptation to population imbalance. Intersex (genetically XXY and/or anatomically hermaphrodite) and transgender persons have existed around the world for much longer than all of American history. Consider Hindu hijra and American Indian berdache. @Ceffer hypothesized that some people who call themselves transgender might instead have OCD, which would explain a lot in some cases, but humans evolved in a naturally non-binary world.

@Patrick, perhaps something about the computer software environment, with its binary foundation (0 vs 1), might resonate with binary thinking, and reinforce that. It's easy to spot a yellow car if you are always thinking of a yellow car. It's perhaps easy to assume everything is binary (or should be) if you are always thinking that way. Likewise if you are always thinking about scams (Realtors, politicians, medical pricing, religions), it's easy to assume something is a scam, even if it isn't.

Please understand, evolution has produced many examples of non-binary sex. Fish that change sex aren't scammers trying to trick you. Berdaches who lived and died before the USA was even founded were not "third wave feminists" trying somehow to oppress you. Non-binary persons do exist, and have rights including the equal protection of the laws.

MisterLearnToCode says

Happy to see ya.

Patrick says

Yes, welcome back @curious2

Thanks :)

curious2 says

There is often no apparent logic to the gender of other nouns

Patrick says

Very orderly!

Germans can't even do graffiti right!

Chris2013 says

Der Tunnel has the masculine article der , not the fem. "die".

Damn, you're right. Must have been using it wrong for years.