Editing Grammatical gender (section)

== Distribution of gender in the world's languages ==
{{see also|List of languages by type of grammatical genders}}
Grammatical gender is a common phenomenon in the world's languages.{{sfn|Foley|Van Valin|1984|p=326}} A typological survey of 174 languages revealed that over one fourth of them had grammatical gender.<ref>{{cite book |last=Nichols |first=Johanna |title=Linguistic diversity in space and time |date=1992 |isbn=0-226-58056-3 |location=Chicago |oclc=24907586 |publisher=University of Chicago Press}}</ref> Gender systems rarely overlap with numerical [[noun classifier|classifier]] systems. Gender and noun class systems are usually found in [[fusional language|fusional]] or [[agglutinating language|agglutinating]] languages, whereas classifiers are more typical of [[isolating language]]s.{{sfn|Franceschina|2005|p=77}} Thus, according to [[Johanna Nichols]], these characteristics correlate positively with the presence of grammatical gender in the world's languages:{{sfn|Franceschina|2005|p=77}}
* location in an area with languages featuring noun classes;
* preference for [[head (linguistics)|head]]-marking morphology;
* moderate to high morphological complexity;
* non-accusative [[morphosyntactic alignment|alignment]].

Grammatical gender is found in many [[Indo-European languages]] (including [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[French language|French]], [[Russian language|Russian]], and [[German language|German]]—but not [[English language|English]], [[Bengali language|Bengali]], [[Armenian language|Armenian]] or [[Persian language|Persian]], for example), [[Afroasiatic languages]] (which includes the [[Semitic languages|Semitic]] and [[Berber languages]], etc.), and in other [[language families]] such as [[Dravidian languages|Dravidian]] and [[Northeast Caucasian languages|Northeast Caucasian]], as well as several [[Australian Aboriginal languages]] such as [[Dyirbal language|Dyirbal]], and [[Kala Lagaw Ya language|Kalaw Lagaw Ya]]. Most [[Niger–Congo languages]] also have extensive systems of noun classes, which can be grouped into several grammatical genders.

Conversely, grammatical gender is usually absent from the [[Koreanic languages|Koreanic]], [[Japonic languages|Japonic]], [[Tungusic language|Tungusic]], [[Turkic languages|Turkic]], [[Mongolic languages|Mongolic]], [[Austronesian languages|Austronesian]], [[Sino-Tibetan languages|Sino-Tibetan]], [[Uralic languages|Uralic]] and most [[Native American languages|Native American]] language families.{{sfn|Corbett|1991|p=2}}

[[Modern English]] makes use of gender in pronouns, which are generally marked for natural gender, but lacks a system of gender concord within the [[noun phrase]] which is one of the central elements of grammatical gender in most other Indo-European languages.<ref name="audring">{{cite journal |last=Audring |first=Jenny |date=1 October 2008 |title=Gender assignment and gender agreement: Evidence from pronominal gender languages |work=[[Morphology (journal)|Morphology]] |language=en |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=93–116 |doi=10.1007/s11525-009-9124-y |issn=1871-5621 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

=== Indo-European ===
Many [[Indo-European languages]], but not English, provide examples of grammatical gender.

Research indicates that the earliest stages of [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] had two genders (animate and inanimate), as did [[Hittite language|Hittite]], the earliest attested Indo-European language. The classification of nouns based on animacy and inanimacy and the lack of gender are today characteristic of [[Armenian language|Armenian]]. According to the theory, the animate gender, which (unlike the inanimate) had independent vocative and accusative forms, later split into masculine and feminine, thus originating the three-way classification into masculine, feminine and neuter.<ref>[http://www.zompist.com/lang21.html#28 How did genders and cases develop in Indo-European?]</ref><ref>[http://homer.members.pgv.at/INDOEURO/gender.htm The Original Nominal System of Proto-Indoeuropean – Case and Gender] {{webarchive|url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131030124214/http://homer.members.pgv.at/INDOEURO/gender.htm |date=30 October 2013 }}</ref><!-- Both sources are very short, snippets really. One is dubious, the other confused. Both cite no nice body of research to check up on.-->

Many Indo-European languages retained the three genders, including most [[Slavic languages]], [[Latin]], [[Sanskrit]], Ancient and Modern [[Greek language|Greek]], [[German language|German]], [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]], [[Romanian grammar|Romanian]] and [[Asturian language|Asturian]] (two Romance language exceptions). In them, there is a high but not absolute correlation between grammatical gender and [[declension]]al class. Many linguists believe that to be true of the middle and late stages of Proto-Indo-European.

However, many languages reduced the number of genders to two. Some lost the neuter, leaving masculine and feminine as in [[Vulgar Latin#Loss of neuter gender|Vulgar Latin then most Romance languages]]; a few traces of the Latin neuter remain, such as the distinct [[Spanish pronouns|Spanish pronoun]] {{lang|es|ello}} and Italian nouns with so-called "mobile gender"). [[Hindustani language|Hindustani]] and the [[Celtic languages]] also dropped neuter. Others merged feminine and masculine into a common gender but retained the neuter, as [[Gender in Danish and Swedish|in Swedish and Danish]], and to some extent [[Gender in Dutch grammar|in Dutch]]. Finally, some languages, such as English and [[Afrikaans]], have nearly completely lost grammatical gender (retaining only some traces, such as the English pronouns ''he'', ''she'', ''they'', and ''it''—Afrikaans {{wikt-lang|af|hy}}, {{wikt-lang|af|sy}}, {{wikt-lang|af|hulle}}, and {{wikt-lang|af|dit}}); [[Armenian language|Armenian]], [[Bengali language|Bengali]], [[Persian language|Persian]], [[Sorani Kurdish]], [[Ossetian language|Ossetic]], [[Odia language|Odia]], [[Khowar language|Khowar]], and [[Kalasha-mun]] have lost it entirely.

On the other hand, some [[Slavic languages]] can be argued to have added new genders to the classical three {{crossreference|(see [[#Slavic languages|below]])|printworthy=y}}.

==== Germanic: English ====
{{Main|Gender in English}}
Although grammatical gender was a fully productive inflectional category in [[Old English]], Modern English has a much less pervasive gender system, primarily based on natural gender and reflected essentially in pronouns only.

There are a few traces of gender marking in Modern English:
* Some words take different [[Morphological derivation|derived]] forms depending on the natural gender of the referent, such as ''waiter/waitress'' and ''widow/widower''.
* The third-person singular [[English personal pronouns|personal pronouns]] (and their possessive forms) are gender specific: ''he/him/his'' (masculine gender, used for men, boys, and male animals), ''she/her(s)'' (feminine gender, for women, girls, and female animals), the [[singular they|singular]] ''they/them/their(s)'' (common gender, used for people or animals of unknown, irrelevant, or non-binary gender), and ''it/its'' (neuter gender, mainly for objects, abstractions and animals). (There are also distinct personal and non-personal forms but no differentiation by natural gender in the case of certain interrogative and [[English relative clauses|relative pronouns]]: ''who/whom'' for persons, corresponding to ''he'', ''she'', and the singular ''they''; and ''which'' corresponding to ''it''.)

However, these are relatively insignificant features compared with a typical language with full grammatical gender. English nouns are not generally considered to belong to gender classes in the way that French, German or Russian nouns are. There is no gender agreement in English between nouns and their modifiers ([[article (grammar)|article]]s, other [[determiner]]s, or [[adjective]]s, with the occasional exception such as ''blond/blonde'', a spelling convention borrowed from French). Gender agreement applies in effect only to pronouns, with the choice of pronoun determined through semantics and/or pragmatics rather than on any conventional assignment of particular nouns to particular genders.

Only a relatively small number of English nouns have distinct male and female forms; many of them are [[loanword]]s from non-[[Germanic language]]s (the suffixes ''-rix'' and ''-ress'' in words such as ''aviatrix'' and ''waitress'', for instance, derive directly or indirectly from Latin). English has no live [[productivity (linguistics)|productive]] gender [[marker (linguistics)|marker]]s.{{citation needed|date=July 2021}} An example of such a marker might be the suffix ''-ette'' (of French provenance), but this is seldom used today, surviving mostly in either historical contexts or with disparaging or humorous intent.

The gender of an English pronoun typically coincides with the natural gender of its referent, rather than with the grammatical gender of its [[antecedent (grammar)|antecedent]]. The choice between ''she'', ''he'', ''they'', and ''it'' comes down to whether the pronoun is intended to designate a woman, a man, or someone or something else. There are certain exceptions, however:
* With animals, ''it'' is usually used, but when the sex of the animal is known, it may be referred to as ''he'' or ''she'', particularly when expressing an emotional connection with the animal, as with a [[Pet animal|pet]]. {{crossreference|(See also human vs. non-human [[#Gender contrasts on human versus sentient referents|above]].)|printworthy=y}}
* Certain non-human things can be referred to with the pronoun ''she'' (''her'', ''hers''), particularly countries and ships, and sometimes other vehicles or machines. This [[figure of speech]] is referred to as [[Gender in English#Metaphorical gender|metaphorical gender]]. It is in decline, and advised against by many style guides.<ref>''[[The Chicago Manual of Style]]'', 15th edition, 2003, p. 356. {{ISBN|0-226-10403-6}}.</ref>

Problems arise when selecting a personal pronoun to refer to someone of unspecified or unknown gender {{crossreference|(see [[#Contextual determination of gender|above]])|printworthy=y}}. In the past and to some degree still in the present, the masculine has been used as the "default" gender in English. The use of the plural pronoun ''they'' with singular reference is common in practice. The neuter ''it'' may be used for a baby but not normally for an older child or adult. Other genderless pronouns exist, such as the impersonal pronoun ''one'', but they are not generally substitutable for a personal pronoun.{{crossreference|&nbsp;(For more information, see [[Gender-neutral language]] and [[Singular they|Singular ''they'']].}}

==== Slavic languages ====
The [[Slavic languages]] mostly continue the Proto-Indo-European system of three genders, masculine, feminine and neuter. Gender correlates largely with noun endings (masculine nouns typically end in a consonant, feminines in {{lang|sla|-a}} and neuters in {{lang|sla|-o}} or {{lang|sla|-e}}) but there are many exceptions, particularly in the case of nouns whose stems end in a [[soft consonant]]. However, some of the languages, including [[Russian language|Russian]], [[Czech language|Czech]], [[Slovak language|Slovak]] and [[Polish language|Polish]], also make certain additional grammatical distinctions between [[animacy|animate]] and inanimate nouns: Polish in the plural, and Russian in the accusative case, differentiate between human and non-human nouns.

[[Russian declension|In Russian]], the different treatment of animate nouns involves their accusative case (and that of adjectives qualifying them) being formed identically to the genitive rather than to the nominative. In the singular that applies to masculine nouns only, but in the plural it applies in all genders.

A similar system applies [[Czech declension|in Czech]], but the situation is somewhat different in the plural: Only masculine nouns are affected, and the distinctive feature is a particular inflective ending for masculine animate nouns in the nominative plural, and for adjectives and verbs agreeing with those nouns.

[[Polish morphology]] might be said to distinguish five genders: personal masculine (referring to male humans), animate non-personal masculine, inanimate masculine, feminine, and neuter. The animate–inanimate opposition for the masculine gender applies in the singular, and the personal–impersonal opposition, which classes animals along with inanimate objects, applies in the plural. (A few nouns denoting inanimate things are treated grammatically as animate and vice versa.) The manifestations of the differences are as follows:
* In the singular, masculine animates (in the standard declension) have an accusative form identical to the genitive, and masculine inanimates have accusative identical to the nominative. The same applies to adjectives qualifying these nouns, the same as in Russian and Czech. Also, Polish masculine animates always form their genitive in {{lang|pl|-a}}, whereas in the case of inanimates some use {{lang|pl|-a}} and some {{lang|pl|-u}}:
*:animate: {{lang|pl|dobry klient}} ("good customer"; nominative); {{lang|pl|dobrego klienta}} (accusative and genitive)
*:animate: {{lang|pl|dobry pies}} ("good dog"; nominative); {{lang|pl|dobrego psa}} (accusative and genitive)
*:inanimate: {{lang|pl|dobry ser}} ("good cheese"; nominative and accusative); {{lang|pl|dobrego sera}} (genitive only)
* In the plural, masculine personal nouns (but not other animate nouns) take accusatives that are identical to the genitives; they also typically take different endings in the nominative (e.g. {{lang|pl|-i}} rather than {{lang|pl|-y}}). Such endings also appear on adjectives and past tense verbs. The two features are analogous to features of Russian and Czech respectively, except that those languages make an animate/inanimate distinction rather than personal/impersonal) . Examples of the Polish system:
*:personal: {{lang|pl|dobrzy klienci}} ("good customers"; nominative); {{lang|pl|dobrych klientów}} (accusative and genitive)
*:impersonal: {{lang|pl|dobre psy}} ("good dogs"; nominative and accusative); {{lang|pl|dobrych psów}} (genitive only)
*:impersonal: {{lang|pl|dobre sery}} ("good cheeses"; nominative and accusative); {{lang|pl|dobrych serów}} (genitive only)

A few nouns have both personal and impersonal forms, depending on meaning for example, {{lang|pl|klient}} may behave as an impersonal noun when it refers to a [[Client (computing)|client in the computing sense]]. {{crossreference|(For certain rules concerning contextual determination and mixed-gender groups, see [[#Contextual determination of gender|above]].)|printworthy=y}}

=== Dravidian ===
[[Tamil grammar|In Tamil]] and some other [[Dravidian languages]], nouns are classified primarily on the basis of their semantic properties. The highest-level classification of nouns is often described as being between "rational" and "nonrational".{{sfn|Corbett|1991|pp=8–11}} Nouns representing humans and [[Deity|deities]] are considered rational, and other nouns (those representing animals and objects) are treated as nonrational. Within the rational class there are further subdivisions into masculine, feminine and [[collective noun]]s.

=== Austronesian ===
In the Austronesian [[Wuvulu-Aua language]], [[vocative case|vocative]] words used when addressing a relative often specify the speaker's gender. For example, {{lang|wuv|tafi}} means 'sister of female', {{lang|wuv|ʔari}} means opposite-gender sibling, and {{lang|wuv|wane}} means female's father's sister or female's brother's daughter.<ref name="Hafford">{{cite book |title=Wuvulu Grammar and Vocabulary |last=Hafford |first=James A. |page=63}}</ref>