Determining the gender of the word: greece

[Merps]

Hey

I looked it up in an english-greek dictionary, and found that the definition is:

Greece n (country) Ελλάδα ουσ.θηλ.
επίσημο Ελλάς ουσ.θηλ.
Προτείνετε βελτιώσεις για το "Greece

However it doesn't have a m or f for an english reader to work out the gender.

So I looked at male:
male: WordReference English-Greek Dictionary © 2009male adj (a sex) φύλο αρσενικός επίθ.
male adj (of boys or men) σχετικός με άντρες ή αγόρια αρσενικός επίθ.
male n (a sex) φύλο, γένος αρσενικός επίθ.

and Female:
female n (biology) θηλυκός επίθ.
επίσημο θήλυς επιθ.
female n (woman) γυναίκα ουσ.θηλ.
υποτιμητικό θηλυκό ουσ.ουδ.


and the only match is on ουσ.θηλ; as greece is Ελλάδα ουσ.θηλ and Female is γυναίκα ουσ.θηλ. So am I correct in determining that Greece is a feminine noun?

[Grant A.]

Very few words in English have gender, and Greece isn't one of them.

[Merps]

Very few words in English have gender, and Greece isn't one of them.

ok I could have said the greek gender of the english word greece, although that would be have been confusing. All greek words have a gender of male female or neuter.

[hansdown]

Hi Merps.

This wikipedia article " might " help.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greece

Helenic republic could be a clue.

[Merps]

Hi Merps.

This wikipedia article " might " help.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greece

Helenic republic could be a clue.


Hey handsdown

could be a clue, also Greek: Ελλάδα, transliterated: Elláda contains Ella as the word stem which is a latin word for woman. But I am still guessing :)

[hansdown]

I haven't talked to my greek friends lately, but you've given me something to ponder. Hmmmm.

[smartboyathome]

It would make sense (to me) for Greek to be feminine. I don't speak Greek, but I am learning Latin (which very loosely inherited traits from Greek among other languages). In Latin, all places (such as Roma [Rome], Italia [Italy], and Britannia [Britain]) were given feminine names.

[hansdown]

I think you're right smartboyathome.

[Merps]

It would make sense (to me) for Greek to be feminine. I don't speak Greek, but I am learning Latin (which very loosely inherited traits from Greek among other languages). In Latin, all places (such as Roma [Rome], Italia [Italy], and Britannia [Britain]) were given feminine names.

I agree smartyboyathome, what you are talking about are exonyms as opposed to endonyms. I am not sure if Greece uses the same Latin geographic nomenclature in generally applying a feminine gender to countries probably with some exceptions, although I know the French do.

[Arkenzor]

I am not sure if Greece uses the same Latin geographic nomenclature in generally applying a feminine gender to countries probably with some exceptions, although I know the French do.

OT: IMO the proportion of masculine country names in French is much to high to talk about exceptions. As examples off my head, Denmark, the UK, the US (plural masculine), Japan, Lebanon, Congo, Israel, Iran, Irak, Brasil, Mexico, Canada, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan (and all other -stan central asian coutries) and Liechtenstein are all masculine, and that's probably not half of them.

But that's besides the point because French derives directly from Latin and Greek doesn't.

[Merps]

OT: IMO the proportion of masculine country names in French is much to high to talk about exceptions. As examples off my head, Denmark, the UK, the US (plural masculine), Japan, Lebanon, Congo, Israel, Iran, Irak, Brasil, Mexico, Canada, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan (and all other -stan central asian coutries) and Liechtenstein are all masculine, and that's probably not half of them.

But that's besides the point because French derives directly from Latin and Greek doesn't.

Hey Arkenzor, you are correct with those countries. The reason that I thought it that feminine was the rule for french geographic names is that most of the continents and france itself are all feminine french nouns.

France = France f., England = Angleterre f., America = Amérique f., Australia = Australie f, Africa = Afrique f; Europe = Europe f., Asia = Asie f., India = Inde f.

Thinking about it didn't the French come from Germany via the Franks, and the Germans have given their country a neuter name with das as the prefix leaving aside the the name of the current republic?

[Arkenzor]

Thinking about it didn't the French come from Germany via the Franks, and the Germans have given their country a neuter name with das as the prefix leaving aside the the name of the current republic?

French, like most (all?) other Romanic languages, doesn't have a neutral gender though.

Aside from that, from speaking both French and German I have to say it's very hard to find common traits between the two, both in grammatical structure and vocabulary. While French there has to have been some mutual influence they remain of distinct families.

[Merps]

French, like most (all?) other Romanic languages, doesn't have a neutral gender though.

Aside from that, from speaking both French and German I have to say it's very hard to find common traits between the two, both in grammatical structure and vocabulary. While French there has to have been some mutual influence they remain of distinct families.

For english speakers, not having a neuter like the french would be strange, as most english words are neuter.

Yes the Latin, Italian, French, German and English do have a lot in common at least from vocabulary and alphabetic points of view and so one can easily feel comfortable with them, not so much so with the Greek and for me it is like trying to read an encryption.

[Merps]

Is there anyone who speaks greek?