Why do some languages use gendered nouns?

gorysubparbagel@lemmy.world to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 121 points –

Why do some languages use gendered nouns? It seems to just add more complexity for no benefit.

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Because everyone knows the sun has a penis and the moon has a fanny

Not in lotr world. There its the opposite, with the male moon chasing the 'flaming hot' female sun across the skies.

Flaming hot is my addition but its kinda remarkably fitting : )

  • Ten (he) mesiac (moon)

  • To (it) slnko (sun)

We got neutral genders in Slovak as well.

For example

  • Tá žena (that (she) woman)

  • To dievča (that (it) girl)

  • Ten chlap (that (he) man)

It all depends on how the word sounds and changes when you say it in different ways (skloňovanie / bending the word).

And we also got 4 patterns for each gender based on which how the word changes so you get over 20 combinations on how to say word in each gender.