88 



ON THE CLASSIFICATION 



ho thelys (the female hare) and alopex he arrhen (the male fox) 

 the adjectives "female" and "male" being respectively 

 in the male and female gende^ lagos being m. and alopex f , 136 

 In a similar manner the Koman calls a male fox mascula 

 mlpes. m Examples like these show the real difference between 

 gender-ignoring and gender-denoting languages. In Telugu> 

 e.g., " male " and " female " would be simply affixed to 

 "hare" and " fox" without suffering any alteration, but in 

 Greek and Latin the masculine or feminine noun indicates, 

 by using with it respectively the feminine and masculine 

 gender of the adjective, the preponderance of gender. 



III. Many abstract languages contain words, whose gram- 

 matical gender is contrary to the sex they represent. Most 

 such words are in cases of this kind employed in a secon- 

 dary meaning, but the pertinacity with which the original 

 gender of the noun is upheld, in spite of the change 

 in meaning which the substantive undergoes, is a very 

 conspicuous indication of gender being engrained in the 

 nature of abstract languages. In Sanskrit, e.g., we find that 

 the word for " wife " is expressed — besides by the usual 

 feminine synonymes — also by nouns in the masculine (either 

 in the singular or in the plural) and neuter genders. 138 The 



(136) Compare : Schulgrammatik der griechischen Sprache von Dr. Raphael 

 Kuhner, Vierte Auflage, page 39. 



(137) See: C. Plinii Secundi Naturalis Histor., Lib. XXVIII, c. 46. 



(138) In Halayudha's Abhidhanaratnaniala, II, 339, we meet the following 

 Sloka : 



Darah kshetram kalatranca bharya sahacarl vadhuh 

 Sadharmacarini patni jaya ca grihinl grihah. 

 . In this sloka " darah" and " grihah " are plurals in the masculine, and 

 "kshetram" and "kalatram" are neuters. The words parigraha, m. and 

 talpa, n. are also used in the sense of wife. 



The word "darah " wife is derived from the Causative of " dri " to split, 

 because " the wife causes division among brothers''' darah darayanti bhratrln ; 

 a derivation which is as peculiar as that of the word putra, see page 45. In 

 the Vdrtika to Panini III. 3, 20 we read in Siddhantakaumudi : " Darajarau 

 kartari niluk ca ; darayantlti darah," jarayantlti jarah. 



According to the Siddhautakaumudl (see Taianatha' sedition, Vol. II, page 

 321) the wife is called ' ' grihah" because she takes the grain, &c, and is in tho 



