1898-99. | THE ORIGIN OF GENDER, 65 
the slave, or scortum the harlot. It does not state a lack of sex, then, 
but rather ignores or declines to assign sex. 
With regard to the origin of gender no attempt at systematic investi- 
gation was made till our own century, when Jacob Grimm, the founder 
of Historical Grammar, assuming that sex is the basis of gender, tried 
to give a systematic account of German genders. Names of animals 
and lifeless objects, he thought, were assigned genders, according as the 
qualities characterizing them were appropriate to males or females, 
“ Masculines,” he said, “seem to be the earlier, greater, firmer, harder, 
quicker; the active, moving, begetting. Feminines are the later, 
smaller, weaker, quieter; the passive, the conceiving. Neuters are the 
produced, effected, material, general, undeveloped, collective.” And 
Scherer is justified in thinking that his chapter on gender represents the 
high-water mark of his genius, such is the mastery of materials and 
acuteness of investigation he displays in it; and yet it is not convincing 
and becomes less and less so, as he descends in the scale of existence, 
till when he reaches abstract nouns he no longer attempts to arrange 
them in accordance with their meanings, but takes form and ending for 
his guide. Take for example, Der See the lake, Dze See the sea or ocean. 
The ocean is greater than the lake, it is the active, the moving, probably 
the earlier ; it seems to have the characteristics of the male and yet it is 
feminine, while the lake is masculine. So with the sun and the moon; 
but Max Miller thinks that the German gender here probably repre- 
sents an older state of things, when men measured time by months 
rather than by years, and the moon took precedence of the sun. And 
while Grimm’s theory is no longer dominant in grammatical studies, it 
still finds many advocates. 
The theory that now holds the field is that presented by the so-called 
young grammarians, prominent representatives of whom are Brugmann 
and Paul. They have abandoned the line followed by Grimm in his 
investigations, and are trying to account for the gender of most words 
by the influence of Analogy. Grammatical gender, they think, probably 
corresponded originally to natural sex, and exccptions to this rule came 
about gradually and in the following way. The word /ove, originally 
neuter, is applied toa man or a woman to denote the beloved object, 
and so by association becomes masculine or feminine. So, too, words 
primarily neuter, but denoting males or females tend to become 
masculine or feminine. Diminutives are primarily neuter, e.g., Wddchen,; 
but Wieland writes, “ Die hdsslichste meiner Kammermiddchen,’ making 
the compound of Miéidchen feminine. So in Latin Terence writes J/ea 
