OP LANGUAGES. 



87 



They happen — 



I. When one and the same word has more than one gender ; 

 II. When a word has only one gender in common for two 

 different sexes ; and 

 III. When the gender of a word is contrary to its meaning, 

 e.g., when the word for " wife " is of masculine or 

 neuter gender ; as the German das Weih. 



I. Beings endowed with life have often one form in common 

 for both sexes, e.g., theos m. f. god and goddess, pais m. f., 

 koros m. f. child, boy or girl, bus m. f. bull or cow, &c. in 

 Greek ; gamal m. f . camel, baqar m. f . kine, tiasir pig, 'ach- 

 bar, mouse, &c, in Hebrew. The context will show in these 

 cases, what gender is meant. Even inanimate objects are 

 connected at times with more than one gender, which fact is 

 an indication that the mind is wavering as to their qualities. 

 In Sanskrit, e.g., kroda 135 breast and tata bank appear in all 

 three genders, anika face, row, is m. and n., kataka string, 

 and sankha shell, are the same, kuti curve, marici ray of light, 

 mani gem, manyu spirit, anger, &c, are m. and f. ; so is aither 

 ether, lithos stone, &c, in Greek ; oni ship, ruach spirit, nephesh 

 soul, erez earth, shemesh sun, &c, are m. and f. in Hebrew. 



II. Some animals are at times credited with possessing quali- 

 ties which are generally prevalent in a man or a woman, and 

 being likened to either, the male or female gender is assigned 

 to the species. Thus are keleb dog, and seeb wolf, m., and 

 gondii dove, and chasiddh stork, f . in Hebrew ; mys mouse, 

 hippos horse (hippos as f. denotes generally cavalry), lagos 

 hare, &c, are m., alopex fox, kamelos camel, f. in Greek. 



The firm hold which the genius of an abstract language has 

 on gender manifests itself in the grammatical treatment of 

 these epicene nouns, for if a Greek, e.g., should mention " a 

 female hare," or " a male fox," he would respectively say lagos 



(135) In Hemacandra's dictionary is the wellknown Sloka : 

 Kroda hara tatha dara traya ete yatha kramam 

 Krode hareca dareshu sabdah prokta manisnibhih. 



