SC - Spanish philology, OT, was Manual de Mugeres: contents list

[Dana Huffman]

> > Is this accurate? las manos? 
...
> 
> Yes -- an irregularity of grammar in a generally regular
> language.  There 
> are a few Spanish nouns which do not follow the pattern
> of o=masculine 
> a=feminine.  Mano is one of them.  Likewise, one says "el
> agua" (the 
> water) and "el dia" (the day).
>  
> > Ras
> 
> 
> Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
> Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
> mka Robin Carroll-Mann
> harper at idt.net
> 

For those who might be interested in the whys and
wherefores of this...
<Engage didactic mode>
"Mano" breaks the pattern of gender and endings because it
is of Greek rather than Latin origin.  This gives us "la
mano", "el mapa", and a series of masculine words ending in
"ma".

"Agua", on the other hand, is actually feminine.  It gets
the masculine "el" because the accent is on the first
syllable, which starts with an "a"; at some point someone
decided that it was better to use the wrong article than to
have the correct one disappear into the word.  So you get
"el arte" and "el agua fria" but "las artes" and "las aguas
frias".
<Disengage didactic mode>

As to "dia" being masculine, I have no idea -- I suspect
it's meant as a trap for beginning students of the
language.

Apologies to those who are here for the recipes.  This sort
of stuff fascinates me, and once I get going it's hard to
stop.

Dana/Ximena

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