Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.2007, Side 112

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GENDER 1N LANGUAGE CONTACT: EVIDENCE
FROM FAROESE-DANISH AND CATALAN-SPANISH
expression like “fruta que se da a la postre
en las comidas” (‘fruit which is given at the
end of the meals’). Note that the gender in
Spanish is also feminine, and sometimes it
was used also with the plural feminine
form, exactly like the actual Catalan form.
However, in other Spanish texts it appears
as masculine, already in 1490. The first
written data of the Spanish word used in a
Catalan text is from the 18,h c. (Coromines,
1980). The Spanish substantive evolved
towards the masculine singular form, while
the Catalan one remained the same, i.e.
feminine plural. There is reason to believe
that during Catalan normativization, in the
first half of the 20lh c., some decision about
keeping the opposite gender from Spanish
might have been taken. In fact, during some
times there had been attempts to find a more
genuine Catalan substantive (clou-dinar
‘close-lunch’, llevant-de-taula ‘clearing-of-
table’, darreries ‘at the end’), but no pro-
posal had enough acceptance (Coromines,
1980).
As for the predictions about the degree
of Catalan gender usage that we will fínd, it
is clear that the word is mainly used in the
context of a household, as well as in the
daily activities at school. Therefore, al-
though schooling in Catalan might have an
effect, the most important influence will
come from the family and their linguistic
background, at least in the speakers with
Catalan dominance.
Group % of Catalan gendcr usagc
G1 Grácia 0
G1 Nou Barris 0
G2 Grácia 22.22
G2 Nou Barris 54.54
G3 Grácia 44.44
G3 Nou Barris 9.09
Table 12. postres
The clearest result comes from children: in
both districts they always used the Spanish
gender (and in some cases the Spanish sing-
ular form as well), although G3, their
parents, show much higher rates, at least in
Grácia. This indicates that the correct gen-
der in Catalan for this word is diffícult to be
acquired by children up to fíve years old.
As for the adults, G2 shows a non-ex-
pected result, since the group in the district
with a lowest usage of Spanish (i.e., Grácia)
is the one with the lowest percentage of
productions with the Catalan gender. This
may be attributed to education in Catalan,
in the sense that it may have a stronger
effect in the district where the word is used
the least in Catalan: if it is not normally
used in Catalan, the young speakers have
learnt the Catalan gender at school; if it is
used in Catalan in the familiar context, it is
used with the Spanish gender and education
has no effect.
However, the results are reversed in the
oldest generation, with Grácia showing the
highest rate. In this case the influence from
the family language background and also
from mass media in Catalan may be the
factors at play.
This case, and especially the results of