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tree_and_leafFrench can't do genders either, shock!
Though what really shocks me is that there seems to have been so little work done on the topic; it's a pity that there's no indication as to where the native speakers came from. Certainly in German it's well known that some dialects have divergent genders of common words (Swabians have a habit of referring to 'der Butter' instead of 'die Butter', for instance, and there are similar anomalies around Aachen). The only factor the article mentions is age - it's possible that a growing uncertainty about gender might be evidence of a process which, left to itself, lead to it dying out, but I doubt that that will happen in a language with a fixed written system, particularly one watched over by the Académie.
Though what really shocks me is that there seems to have been so little work done on the topic; it's a pity that there's no indication as to where the native speakers came from. Certainly in German it's well known that some dialects have divergent genders of common words (Swabians have a habit of referring to 'der Butter' instead of 'die Butter', for instance, and there are similar anomalies around Aachen). The only factor the article mentions is age - it's possible that a growing uncertainty about gender might be evidence of a process which, left to itself, lead to it dying out, but I doubt that that will happen in a language with a fixed written system, particularly one watched over by the Académie.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-02-25 09:54 pm (UTC)Oddly enough, although I currently live in Baden, I know more Swabian dialect speakers (well, it's not surprising: most of the people I know in Baden are academics, and most of the people I know in Schwaben are Scouts, and hence more diverse).
(no subject)
Date: 2008-02-25 10:35 pm (UTC)LEO says so, too! I just checked. Now I'm even more confused.