Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.2007, Side 103

KYN OG MÁLSAMBAND - DØMI í FØROYSKUM-DONSKUM
OG KATALANSKUM-SPONSKUM
101
Strangely enough three words end up as
neuter: judo ‘judo’,porno ‘pom’ and radio
‘radio’. Neuter inporno and judo can best
be explained as a result of default gender,
but it is possible that the semantic fíeld judo
belongs to has cased neuter; compare for
example borðtennis ‘table-tennis’ and bad-
minton. Another case of semantic analogy
is perhaps in buffe-n. ‘side board’ (< Dan.
buffet-cg. ‘side board’) in analogy to native
borð-n. ‘table.’ A pretty clear case of se-
mantic analogy is in pláss-n. ‘place,’ (Dan.
plads-cg.) cori'esponding to the native noun
stað-n. ‘place’.4 The noun urin might have
changed from common gender to neuter
because of conceptual association with the
nativepAx-n. ‘pee’.
Native -us words are associated with
masculine: gánus/glanus/kánus ‘person that
stares’, nemus ‘person that has to touch
everything’. -us in borrowings is, for in-
stance, found in other nouns such as bam-
bus/bambusur ‘bamboo’, and syklus/syk-
lusur-m. ‘cycle’. In Danish there are neuter
nouns ending in -us such as genus ‘gender’,
korptis ‘corpus’, and kursus ‘course’. But
the change of gender in antabus ‘antabuse’,
bonus ‘bonus’, luksus Tuxury’, moskus
‘musk’, papyrus ‘papyrus’ and tyfus
‘typhoid fever’ is still strange. Spiritus-n.
has changed gender due to the semantic
assignment mle alcohol is neuter, and pa-
pyrus has changed gender due to a semantic
analogy withpappír-n. ‘paper’.
There are 1,314 simplex masculine
nouns with word fínal -i in Faroese in the
nominative singular. Out of these, 53 are
masculine as a result of the semantic
assignment mle: persons 3 m., like granni
‘neighbor’. Inherited neuter nouns with
word fínal -i (as kvæði ‘ballad’) are close to
500, so one should not expect common
gender nouns with word final -i to change to
neuter based on these numbers alone. Still
we find the following changes from com-
mon gender in Danish to neuter in Faroese:
afasi ‘aphasia’, garanti ‘guarantee’, grafitti
‘graffiti’, hekti ‘hook’, hobby ‘hobby’5, kaffi
‘coffee’, narkomani ‘drug addiction’, onani
‘masturbation’,pedojili ‘pedophilia’, /joev/
Figure 1. (1) Neuter and common gender in Dan.,
neuter in Far. (2) Neuter and common gender in Dan.,
masc. in Far. (3) Neuter and common gender in Dan.,
feminine in Far. (4) Neuter and common gender in
Dan., all thrcc genders in Far.
The fígure shows, (1) how many nouns are neuter and
common gender in Danish, and what gender the same
words have in Faroese, that is neuter. Then there are
a few nouns that are neuter and common gender in
Danish, but end up as masculine in Faroese. (3) illu-
strates how many nouns are neuter and common gen-
der in Danish and end up as feminine in Faroese. (4)
shows the nouns that are neuter and common gender
in Danish, and might have all three genders in Faro-
ese. That is, they are in a transition pcriod.