Death

[Iris]

I have always wondered why Death is a she in Spanish and a he in English. Any ideas?

[Rusty]

It is most likely because of the language roots we stem from. The romance tongues use a feminine article (where there is an article). The non-romance tongues generally assign a masculine quality, or personification, to death. English, as you know, does not have the concept of masculine, feminine, or neuter words, but we personify a couple of nouns, like cars, ships, and death.

Cars, ships, the earth, mother nature, tempests, and other words are all feminine.
Examples:
She's a beautiful car/ship. The storm was fierce; she packed a mighty punch. The earth, with her 10,000 flowers ...

Death is masculine. Other words are, too, but I can't think of any right now.

[Iris]

You've made me wonder. When we personify a car or a ship in Spanish, are they feminine like in English?

[Tomisimo]

Escrito originalmente por Iris

You've made me wonder. When we personify a car or a ship in Spanish, are they feminine like in English?

Good question. I'd like to know the answer to it too.

[Elaina]

Going out on a limb here..........

When we personify something, we usually use the opposite sex of what we are. We let everyone know how much "in love" we are with our car or with the ship that is going to carry us across the ocean.

My college professor used to say that it was more "socially acceptable" no matter what the language was.

Is it true? I don't know.

Elaina

[Tomisimo]

Interesting. Never heard that theory before. I have no idea if it's true or not.

[brute]

Escrito originalmente por Elaina

Going out on a limb here..........

When we personify something, we usually use the opposite sex of what we are. We let everyone know how much "in love" we are with our car or with the ship that is going to carry us across the ocean.

My college professor used to say that it was more "socially acceptable" no matter what the language was.

Is it true? I don't know.

Elaina

In Britain toilets are now often described as MALE TOILETS / FEMALE TOILETS. Since Male and female are used as adjectives, we are in effect giving the toilets a gender!!

[Jessica]

Escrito originalmente por brute

In Britain toilets are now often described as MALE TOILETS / FEMALE TOILETS. Since Male and female are used as adjectives, we are in effect giving the toilets a gender!!

[Tomisimo]

Escrito originalmente por Rusty

Death is masculine. Other words are, too, but I can't think of any right now.

I'd say "time" and "wind" are probably masculine. (father time, old man wind).

(I know this is an old post, but I think it's still relevant)

[irmamar]

Interesting question. In Spanish gender is often confused with sex, but this is a great mistake. Words have gender, neither humans nor animals have it, but sex. There've been several studies about Spanish words gender; most of Spanish words derive from Latin, of course, and have taken their gender from this language. However, there are other words which have changed their original Latin gender into another, masculine or feminine, depending on several causes. A lot of Spanish feminine words ending in -a come from a neutral plural Latin word ending in -a (arma, leña). Other Spanish words ending in -a (el día, el poema) have maintained their masculine gender although they end in -a.

When we personify an inanimate object, usually we give it the sex that is related to the gender it has. I could call my car with a name such as "Manolito". A ship would have a male personification. However, a lot of ships have female names (Aurora, Carmen, Sirena, ...). Even people who live besides the sea usually don't say "el mar", but "la mar".

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Escrito originalmente por Iris

You've made me wonder. When we personify a car or a ship in Spanish, are they feminine like in English?

Personification in Spanish is directly related to word gender. A car or a ship will be usually masculine.

El barco
El coche/auto/carro (the car)

Although there is:
La nave
La camioneta (the van) --> This one is a feminine.


"El mar" and "la mar" are both possible because it's a substantive that can be either feminine or masculine.

A few years ago, a German friend of mine visited Mexico. When we were in a restaurant, she went to the restroom and came back very ashamed because she had walked into men's toilet. Most doors have a label, but these ones only had a Sun and a Moon. She was confused because gender for both are the opposite in German and in Spanish.


About Elaina's comment: I think that when it comes about cars, Spanish-speaking men identify themselves with the motor-power and the looks of the car, so it's more "me" than "my girlfriend". And I guess it's something similar to boat crews.

[bobjenkins]

Escrito originalmente por Elaina

Going out on a limb here..........

When we personify something, we usually use the opposite sex of what we are. We let everyone know how much "in love" we are with our car or with the ship that is going to carry us across the ocean.

My college professor used to say that it was more "socially acceptable" no matter what the language was.

Is it true? I don't know.

Elaina

Me lo parece que es la verdad (it seems to me that it is the truth)

[Tomisimo]

Escrito originalmente por bobjenkins

Me lo parece que es la verdad (it seems to me that it is the truth)

Me parece que es la verdad. (sin "lo")