Does Anyone Know Why?

[Taira]

Boats being called she is a cultural thing.

Grammatical gender has existed in Indo-European languages for thousands of years. Old English had three genders just like the other Germanic languages. Hindi also has grammatical gender. Other language groups have an even more extensive gender system, like the Bantu languages. Kiswahili has something like 14 different grammatical genders which aren't divided by sex, but rather other characteristics. And they also need to use the right pronouns for the right genders.

Thinking of grammatical gender as having to do with real world gender would be very wrong. It's much better to think of them as grammatical categories for nouns. There was once a logical system for it, but our languages have developed over such a long time that mostly just the patterns remain.

Many Norwegian dialects only use our "he" and "she" equivalents as pronouns for things of masculine and feminine gender. The sun is a she, the moon is a he. A boat is a he, while a ship is an it because it's neuter. But the people who care about the ship would still call it she, because of another tradition.

 

[Aspergers_Aspie]

I've heard the Forth Bridge in Scotland is known as the Grand Old Lady

The other Forth bridge - 50 years on

 

[Hylian]

People doing things like that used to confuse me and still sometimes does. I think people will assign names and specific genders to things that they have an attachment to, like they're personifying it? I have a blanket that I gave a name and referred to as a "she" as a child because I had an attachment to it.

The "referring to the ground as 'the floor'" thing used to throw me for a loop when I was younger though, because I initially take what people are saying too literally. I now just know they're associating a floor with the ground so are using that term because it's what came to mind, but I still sometimes have to think for a second if someone interchanges terms like that. lmao

 

[Aspergers_Aspie]

It's a similar thing to UK police reality tv shows I've seen and a police drama they call the ground the floor. The floor is inside and the ground is outside!

 

[Aspychata]

It's a similar thing to UK police reality tv shows I've seen and a police drama they call the ground the floor. The floor is inside and the ground is outside!

That threw me off too. The ground floor or is it lobby or is it the basement? It's not black and white. Sometimes the lobby is the ground floor and the ground floor is the parking floor in some buildings, even more confusing. Then those stupid elevators that only go to certain floors in huge buildings are a giant pain. lol

 

[Soleil]

My parents always had names for their cars. Usually masculine.

My mom names her cars, too. Like a large grey SUV called Dumbo, or the Isuzu she named Suzi. Or my current car, a yellow one we call Pikachu.

For example, I think a table is considered female in French but male in Italian.

And in Norwegian, it's neutral.

. For example, girls in German are considered neuter.

And in Irish, Cailín (girl) is masculine!

Many Norwegian dialects only use our "he" and "she" equivalents as pronouns for things of masculine and feminine gender.

I don't know about any dialects, but from what I've heard Bokmal, which normally has three genders (masculine, feminine, and neutral) is experiencing a trend in which feminine nouns are being treated as masculine. So "a book/ the book" could be "ei bok/ boka" (feminine) or "en bok/ boken" (masculine), leading to a future with only two genders: masculine and neutral.

As for Floor vs Ground, the ground is usually natural and outside, while the floor is usually manmade and under a cover, like a roof. So the "ground floor" is just the floor/ storey closest to street level. Though some languages call the ground floor the first floor, while others say the first floor is the first storey above the ground level. Very confusing.

 

[Aspychata]

My mom names her cars, too. Like a large grey SUV called Dumbo, or the Isuzu she named Suzi. Or my current car, a yellow one we call Pikachu.


And in Norwegian, it's neutral.


And in Irish, Cailín (girl) is masculine!


I don't know about any dialects, but from what I've heard Bokmal, which normally has three genders (masculine, feminine, and neutral) is experiencing a trend in which feminine nouns are being treated as masculine. So "a book/ the book" could be "ei bok/ boka" (feminine) or "en bok/ boken" (masculine), leading to a future with only two genders: masculine and neutral.

As for Floor vs Ground, the ground is usually natural and outside, while the floor is usually manmade and under a cover, like a roof. So the "ground floor" is just the floor/ storey closest to street level. Though some languages call the ground floor the first floor, while others say the first floor is the first storey above the ground level. Very confusing.

Sometimes the ground floor is referred to as the lobby.

 

[Aspergers_Aspie]

So called sister cities or sister companies, non-living things can't be he or she, for example a boat is an 'it' not a she

 

[SimonSays]

In the US, the ground floor of a building is the first floor. This messed with me several times when I lived there.

In the English language we say we chop a tree down but then, once it’s down, we chop it up. It’s all bonkers really.

And what about expressions themselves? There are many confusing cultural moments when saying things that make perfect sense to us in our country but have no relevance to somebody else in another, because when you analyse the words it doesn’t actually make any sense and yet we know exactly what it means.

 

[Aspergers_Aspie]

People say 'I'm on the bus' they should say I'm in the bus' haha

 

[Aspergers_Aspie]

I saw this sign today, shouldn't it be walkers 'on' road