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Saxuma: Difference between revisions
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==Semantics== | ==Semantics== | ||
=== | ===Semantics of gender=== | ||
: ''See also: [[Saxuma#Gender|Gender]]'' | |||
There is substantial debate over how to categorize and describe gender in Saxuma. It is not a grammatical gender system, but rather semantic. It is largely agreed that historically, the two genders mapped to a traditional masculine-feminine split (evidenced by words such as "man," "woman," and sexed animal terms being derived from the gendered suffixes), but now is used to describe the speaker's attitude toward the referent or their role in a narrative, with the potential to shift mid-discourse. | There is substantial debate over how to categorize and describe gender in Saxuma. It is not a grammatical gender system, but rather semantic. It is largely agreed that historically, the two genders mapped to a traditional masculine-feminine split (evidenced by words such as "man," "woman," and sexed animal terms being derived from the gendered suffixes), but now is used to describe the speaker's attitude toward the referent or their role in a narrative, with the potential to shift mid-discourse. | ||