Expert: PuoTaal - 3/10/2004

Question
Thanks for the fast answer!

I am amazed how this works!
So there is no gender in Afrikaans nouns.And what about pronouns, do you differ between he, she, it?

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Followup To
Question -
Hi,
I am currently working on a thesis concerning the gender assignment. I wonder how the grammatical category of gender operates in Afrikaans. Are there any gender distinction reflected in the morphology??
How does it differ from the gender in English?
How many genders are there, and  most important how do you recognize that a particular noun belongs to a particular gender.
Is meaning of the word of any importance? What would be e.g. the gender of a noun 'soap'??

Looking forward to your reply,
Blanka T.

 

Answer -
Nouns are not divided into genders in Afrikaans. Unlike many related Germanic languages Afrikaans is quite simplified in this regard.

Answer
There is a distinction between genders in terms of pronouns in Afrikaans - hy (he), sy (she), dit (it), sy/syne (his) and haar/hare (his). The same rule applies for the form with "-self", for example: homself (himself) and haarself (herself) - "Hy sien homself" (He sees himself).

I must note that even though we have this distinction gender is not such an important characteristic in Afrikaans - sy (she) is used for referents that are female: meisie (girl), koei (cow), ooi (ewe), vrou (woman). While hy (he) is used for referents that are male: man (man), seun (boy), hings (stallion) as well as most other instances of nouns (e.g. common nouns and collective nouns).

Regards
Jako Olivier
jako@cyberserv.co.za