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Thread: Post examples of words that are similar but have different genders in different languages

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    Default Post examples of words that are similar but have different genders in different languages

    A few examples:

    ES la leche
    FR le lait

    ES el mar
    FR la mer

    ES la cancion
    FR le chanson

    ES el viaje
    PT a viagem

    ES el mensaje
    PT a mensagem

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    Italian and Spanish likely have examples of this. Milk in Italian is il latte -- masculine like in French.

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    Italian and Sardinian have tons of cognate words with different genders. Usually it's the Sardinian counterpart that preserves the original Latin gender.

    It. l'estate (f) Sar. s'istìu (m) - Eng. summer
    It. la primavera (f) Sar. su berànu (m) - Eng. spring
    It. la sera (f) Sar. su sero (m) - Eng. evening
    It. la notte (f) Sar. su notte (m) - Eng. night
    It. il fico (m) Sar. sa figu (f) - Eng. fig
    It. la testuggine (f) Sar. su tostòine (m) - Eng. turtle
    It. l'orecchio (m) Sar. s'orìja (f) - Eng. ear (the J is pronounced like Y)
    It. il dente (m) Sar. sa dente (f) - Eng. tooth
    It. l'albero (m) Sar. s'àrvure (f) - Eng. tree
    It. il pomodoro (m) Sar. sa pumàta (f) - Eng. tomato
    It. il labbro (m) Sar. sa lara/lavra (f) - Eng. lip
    It. la pesca (f) Sar. su pèssiche, pèssighe (m) - Eng. peach (Lat. "persica, persicae")
    It. l'albicocca (f) Sar. su paracocco, barracocco (m) -
    Eng. apricot (Lat. "praecocus" = precocious)
    It. la neve (f) Sar. su nie (m) - Eng. snow
    It. la grandine (f) Sar. su ràndine (m) - Eng. hail
    It. il merlo (m) Sar. sa mèrula (f) - Eng. blackbird
    It. la lepre (f) Sar. su lèpere (m) - Eng. hare
    It. l'arancia (f) Sar. s'arantzu (m) - Eng. orange
    It. il cucchiaio (m) Sar. sa cucciàra / cullera (f) - Eng. spoon (cucciàra is typical of north Sardinia, from Spanish "cuchara"; cullera is typical of the south, from Catalan "cullera")

    It. la vespa (f) Sar. su 'espe (m) - Eng. wasp
    It. il banco (m) - Eng. desk Sar. sa banca (f) - Eng. table
    It. il timore (m) Sar. sa timòria (f) - Eng. fear
    It. il vestiario (m) Sar. sa bestimenta (f) - Eng. wardrobe, clothes, vestment, elegant dress
    It. gli intestini (m) Sar. sas istentìnas (f) - Eng. intestines
    It. lo zolfo (m) Sar. sa sùlfera / bùlfera / bùlvera (f) - Eng. sulphur
    It. la rapina (f) Sar. s'irrobatoriu (m) - Eng. robbery
    It. la ruggine (f) Sar. su ruìnzu (m) - Eng. rust
    It. il singhiozzo (m) Sar. sa taccullitta / ticcullitta / tuccullitta / singullitta (f) - Eng. hiccup
    Non Auro, Sed Ferro, Recuperanda Est Patria (Not by Gold, But by Iron, Is the Nation to be Recovered) - Marcus Furius Camillus (Roman General)

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tooting Carmen View Post
    ES la cancion
    FR le chanson
    Error.
    Fr. chanson is feminine.

    Quote Originally Posted by Sikeliot View Post
    Italian and Spanish likely have examples of this.
    Not many I can think of, except for leche / latte.
    Actually, Italian (in all of its variants) and Spanish seem to be remarkably consistent ad for grammatical genders.

    Sardinian is on the other hand a quite different beast, definitely extraneous to the Italian continuum.

    . Fr. Mer is an interesting case. The Romance cognates are masculine, it's feminine in all French dialects, including the Occitan family. But:
    - Catalan, being as usual torn between Gallic and Iberian influences, is always hesitating between la mar and el mar.
    - Amazingly, in Rhaeto-Romance languages (including Ladino in Italy) the cognate are feminine like in French, which tends to support the view according to which this language group is the residual Eastern extension of the French area. (Of course, that's no much significant in everyday life since the Rhaeto-Romance zone is entirely landlocked in the Southern Alps...).

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