On 17 Nov 2005 05:14:51 -0800, "JohnV@nn" <jmvannoy@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>Spike wrote:
>
>> Ummmmm... so do the Germans, Spanish, and some guy perched on a rock
>> in the South Pacific...
>
>IIRC the German language goes even farther to include "neuter" and all
>three genders require a different conjugation. I remember there being
>different words for "taxi" and one was male and one was neuter; so you
>had to conjugate differently depending on which word you chose. Gotta
>love English! (Sorry to go off on this tangent but this brings to mind
>something my friend from Taiwan told me about the Mandarin language;
>the word for "child" has male gender, regardless of the gender of the
>child. So they would say the Mandarin equivalent of "he" or "him" to
>refer to their daughter.)
German was my language in school, and you are exactly correct... der,
die, and das.... So your car is neuter... das auto.... but it might be
female or male if you add a name like Mustang, or Impala. And you
don't even want to get into Japanese. Spoken is reasonably easy, but
writing kanji even drove my Japanese interpreter crazy. So many
different words depending on what you were talking about, and whether
you were making a statement, or asking a question, etc. The good side
is that no matter what language you speak in Asia, Kanji is the same
wherever you go... an invention by the Chinese (Genghis Kahn IIRC) for
trade purposes, much as English is used at airports around the world.
*Mustang was mentioned in this post : 0 )
--
Spike
1965 Ford Mustang Fastback 2+2, Vintage Burgundy
w/Black Std Interior, A Code 289 C4 Trac-Lok;
Vintage 40 16" rims w/225/50ZR16 KDWS BF Goodrich
gForce Radial T/As, Cobra drop; surround sound
audio-video...
See my ride at....
Feb 2004-
http://207.36.208.198/albums/86810/003_May_21_3004.jpg
Feb 2004-
http://207.36.208.198/albums/86810/005_May_21_2004.jpg
Jul 2005-
http://207.36.208.198/albums/86810/d..._11_05_002.jpg
Jul 2005-
http://207.36.208.198/albums/86810/E...ebuild_006.jpg