[B-Greek] 2nd Declension Adjectives - Gender

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sat May 26 05:39:11 EDT 2007


On May 25, 2007, at 10:53 PM, Delbert Flora wrote:

> It seems like the only function of Gender is to ensure correct  
> modification (what modifies what). The adjective AIWNIOS, for  
> example, has the same endings for Masc. and Fem., with a different  
> set for the Neuter. What would be the logic or rationale for not  
> having three distinct Genders for ALL adjectives (for all word  
> classes for that matter)?

I'm not sure that one can suggest such a question except in theory.   
There are third-declension adjectives also with three terminations  
for the three genders (e.g. BARUS, BAREIA, BARU) but others with two  
terminations (e.g. ALHQHS, ALHQES). Second-declension nouns are  
tricky too -- you simply have to learn the gender of some of the most  
important of them: hH hODOS, hH NHSOS, hH NOSOS -- and there's a  
whole slew of three and shrub names in -OS that are feminine (for  
some reason plant life is supposed to be feminine?). For my part, I  
find it difficult to take seriously the notion that the gender of  
noun and adjectives has any basis other than establishing concord of  
nouns and adjectives.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/





More information about the B-Greek mailing list