Ugh, I had to do a presentation on a short story about a mummy (the ancient Egyptian kind, not the British mommy kind) in French class. I kept stumbling because the mummy is a guy but I had to refer to him as "la momie"... ＞︿＜ It was so confusing.
I have the same confusion when reading French news about accidents. The French word for victim is feminine. Even if the victim is a male, the news refer to him as 'elle'. And there can be several sentences in between the first mention of the victim and subsequent use of the personal pronoun, and I am like "where did this woman come from?!!!"
German has one like that, the word for "little girl" is "das Mädchen," which is neutral. Feels really weird, sounds like saying "that thing over there". Quite literally an objectification!
Is this the prequel to your other cartoon, where Itchy proceeds to call the other guy at 3 in the morning because he's suddenly remembered the right word? ;-)
I've never understood why it is la mairie but le maire. Particularly it confuses me because our mayor is a woman.
ReplyDeleteI mean I'll never understand gendered nouns period, but no one asked MY advice when they created languages, so here we are
DeleteUgh, I had to do a presentation on a short story about a mummy (the ancient Egyptian kind, not the British mommy kind) in French class. I kept stumbling because the mummy is a guy but I had to refer to him as "la momie"... ＞︿＜
DeleteIt was so confusing.
I have the same confusion when reading French news about accidents. The French word for victim is feminine. Even if the victim is a male, the news refer to him as 'elle'. And there can be several sentences in between the first mention of the victim and subsequent use of the personal pronoun, and I am like "where did this woman come from?!!!"
DeleteGerman has one like that, the word for "little girl" is "das Mädchen," which is neutral. Feels really weird, sounds like saying "that thing over there". Quite literally an objectification!
DeleteIs this the prequel to your other cartoon, where Itchy proceeds to call the other guy at 3 in the morning because he's suddenly remembered the right word? ;-)
ReplyDeleteHaha yes, they do kinda go together
Delete