Klarinet Archive - Posting 000081.txt from 2000/01

From: Roger Shilcock <roger.shilcock@-----.uk>
Subj: Re: [kl] Re: languages
Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2000 05:12:26 -0500

It all depends what you define as gender --- if you count the noun classes
of Bantu languages as a form of gender, there are languages with teens of
them. Finnish is generally said to have fifteen cases, by the way, though
some of them are hardly used in the spoken language. There are languages
in the Caucasus with far more cases than this.
Roger Shilcock

On Fri, 24 Dec 1999, Rien Stein wrote:

> Date: Fri, 24 Dec 1999 23:03:51 +0100
> From: Rien Stein <rstein@-----.nl>
> Reply-To: klarinet@-----.org
> To: klarinet digest <klarinet@-----.org>
> Subject: [kl] Re: languages
>
> On Thu, 23 Dec 1999 23:39:14 -0500 Danny Ehrhart wrote:
>
> >what about us students that are taught French but don't speak it. I'm prime
> >example. I don't see why we need masculine and feminine articles?! (That's
> >the part I have the most trouble with!) But I try, maybe I'll be able to
> use
> >it some day!
>
>
> Dear Danny
>
> French is a rather uncomplicated language: it has only two genders. Many
> languages have three, usually indicated as male, female and neutral. I am
> not aware of any language having more than three genders.
>
> You can do quite without genders: English contains only one, the Indonesian
> has none at all, and also this language, like Russian, has no articles.
> Don't shout hoorray to these languages, though, they are not simple! In
> Russian you have no articles, but you "ll meet all three the genders, and
> besides six cases (and many more difficulties), in Finnish (I never learned
> that one, but a friend of mine did) you have even eight. So cheer up, do the
> best you can, and try to get fluent in French. Be not as that LA woman, that
> said to me "I teach French, but I cannot speak it!" It gives much richness
> to your life, when you master a language, and, believe me, I think it is
> easier to become fluent in a foreign language, than to learn to play
> clarinet ...
>
> Rien
>
>
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