Chris Mason wrote:
The gender assignment of "Der Bachfisch" is very easy to explain - although I'll need help with the metaphor.
Note that it's Backfisch, not Bachfisch, the latter of which I'm somewhat familiar with, having attended Schubert Gymnasium in Vienna for several years, and the former I avoided because they behaved and smelled funny <G>.
As another point that doesn't meet your conjecture on diminutives (-chen, -lein) is "das Weib"
Basically you are explaining why the words you cited had a particular gender. Seymour's point was that these are used for people and objects they obviously do not apply to. Living languages undergo changes constantly, hence there has to be a reason why speakers choose to use and retain inappropriate genders.
Gerhard Postpischil Bradford, VT ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
