и немножко истории
Oct. 28th, 2007 02:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
maryxmas"I just wanted to say something about the oh so promiscuous myth that the English word for “woman” is in fact a derivation of the word “man” implying inferiority. It isn’t true.
Technically, in Old English “woman” was one part of a gendered pair. While “man” was indicative of both sexes “werman” served as the masculine and “wifman” the feminine. But then of course the good folks of Normandy took over England after the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and from there everyone started getting lazy.
The “wer” in “werman” (Cognate of Latin “vir” for “virility”) eventually fell out of common usage, but it can still be found in such words as “werewolf” (Originally being a masculine designation) Surprisingly, it also forms our word for “world” which comes from the Old English “wereald” or “the age of man” (A masculine designation for one’s lifetime) “Wifman” on the other hand was eventually slurred into it’s current shape “women” but the original prefix does live on in our word for “wife”.
Likewise, people have made similar claims about “female” being derived from “male”; in reality, both are derivatives of the Latin “femina” and “masculus” which were borrowed into English through the Romance languages. The deceptive similarity is more a matter of spelling convention more than anything; originally “female” was “femelle”.
As for pronouns, technically English used to have gender neutral forms; they just ended up falling out of use after a time.
Subject: hé (m), héo (f), hit (n)
D. Object: hine (m), híe (f), hit (n)
I. Object: him (m), hire (f), him (n)
Possessive: his (m), hire (f), his (n)
Today we have this:
Subject: he (m), she (f)
Object: him (m), her (f)
Possessive: his (m), her (f)"
взято тут:
http://community.livejournal.com/kissmyass_cosmo/199243.html
Technically, in Old English “woman” was one part of a gendered pair. While “man” was indicative of both sexes “werman” served as the masculine and “wifman” the feminine. But then of course the good folks of Normandy took over England after the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and from there everyone started getting lazy.
The “wer” in “werman” (Cognate of Latin “vir” for “virility”) eventually fell out of common usage, but it can still be found in such words as “werewolf” (Originally being a masculine designation) Surprisingly, it also forms our word for “world” which comes from the Old English “wereald” or “the age of man” (A masculine designation for one’s lifetime) “Wifman” on the other hand was eventually slurred into it’s current shape “women” but the original prefix does live on in our word for “wife”.
Likewise, people have made similar claims about “female” being derived from “male”; in reality, both are derivatives of the Latin “femina” and “masculus” which were borrowed into English through the Romance languages. The deceptive similarity is more a matter of spelling convention more than anything; originally “female” was “femelle”.
As for pronouns, technically English used to have gender neutral forms; they just ended up falling out of use after a time.
Subject: hé (m), héo (f), hit (n)
D. Object: hine (m), híe (f), hit (n)
I. Object: him (m), hire (f), him (n)
Possessive: his (m), hire (f), his (n)
Today we have this:
Subject: he (m), she (f)
Object: him (m), her (f)
Possessive: his (m), her (f)"
взято тут:
http://community.livejournal.com/kissmyass_cosmo/199243.html
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no subject
Date: 2007-10-28 10:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-28 10:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-28 10:23 pm (UTC)I love it when you write in English
Date: 2007-10-28 10:19 pm (UTC)So here's a bit of black slang for you, "You go, sister."
Re: I love it when you write in English
Date: 2007-10-28 10:21 pm (UTC)thnx for the phrase. now I will have to figure out how to use it.
You go sister
Date: 2007-10-29 12:49 am (UTC)Re: You go sister
Date: 2007-10-29 12:57 am (UTC)Re: You go sister
Date: 2007-10-29 02:17 pm (UTC)It's black English that has crept into the regular language and which a lot of women of all races use among themselves.
Re: You go sister
Date: 2007-10-30 12:36 am (UTC)Re: You go sister
Date: 2007-10-30 02:19 pm (UTC)