Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.2007, Qupperneq 104

102
GENDER IN LANGUAGE CONTACT: EVIDENCE
FROM FAROESE-DANISH AND CATALAN-SPANISH
‘poetry’ (might be masculine poesiur and
feminine also poesi), reggae ‘reggae’
sjalusi ‘jealousy’. There are neither seman-
tic nor any morphological motivations be-
hind the change.
3.1. Common or neuter in Danish, neuter
in Faroese
Some nouns in Danish might have both
common gender and neuter. Most of them
end up as neuter in Faroese (Figure 1).
Note here the semantic rule chemical
elements and metals z> n., which will ac-
count for the gender of some of the nouns
above. For example anilin ‘aniline’, sellu-
loid ‘celluloid’, karbid ‘carbide’, klor ‘chlo-
rine’, naftalin ‘naphtalene’, natron ‘soda’,
salpetur ‘saltpeter’, trotyl ‘TNT’, uran ‘ura-
nium’, but the other end up as neuter as a
result of default.
If we look at the opposite situation, that
is, how many Danish neuter nouns change
to masculine or feminine in Faroese, we
find the following nouns:
The change of centner to masculine sentn-
ari ‘hundredweight’, gelænder to gelend-
ari-m. ‘banisters’ and register to registari-
m. is regular. The Danish ending is associa-
ted with the nomen agentis ending -er as
løber-m. ‘runner’ ~ Faroese renn-ar-i-m.
‘runner’. Also -el, in kápil ‘cable’, has a
morphological explanation, cf. nouns in -il
or -ul in Faroese as stuðul-m ‘support’.
As for gardin ‘curtain’, there are only
two words ending in -din in Petersen’s
database and both are feminine, gardin-f.
and sardin-f. ‘sardine’.
The change of spinet-n. to feminine
spinett-í. ‘spinet’ is in accordance with the
semantic rule: musical instruments z> f,
which belongs to the Semantic Assignment
Rules.
It is not surprising that smykke-n. chan-
ges to smúkka-í., if we look at the general
tendency for nouns ending in -e in Danish
to become feminine in Faroese.
Neuter nouns ending in -e change their
ending to -i: bælte > belti ‘belt’, hæfte >
hefti ‘pamphlet’, orgie > orgi ‘orgy’, rygte
> rykti ‘rumor’, studie > studii ‘study’; to -
a: dogme > dogma ‘dogma’, medie > media
‘media’, or they preserve the Danish (or
English) ending: hardware, software, pate,
resume.
Given the data
above, especially
common gender >
neuter and common
gender/neuter
neuter, we conclude
that there is eviden-
ce in borrowings for
neuter as being the
default gender in Faroese.
4. The Catalan study
As described in 1.1., the Catalan study foc-
uses on the production of Catalan words,
Table 2. The following Danish ncuter nouns change gender, when they are borrowed into Faroese
centner > sentnari-/». ‘hundredweight’ credo > krcdda-/ ‘creed’
fýr > fyrur-///. ‘fireplace’ gardin > gardina-f. ‘curtain’
gelænder> gelendari-//;. ‘banisters’ kabel > kápil-m. ‘cable’
register > registari-m. ‘register’ smykke > smúkka-/’ ‘omament’
spinet > spinett-/ ‘spinet’