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Article published In: Historiographia Linguistica
Vol. 34:2/3 (2007) ► pp.333–349

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Algonquian and Indo-European gender in a Historiographic Perspective

 | Adam Mickiewicz University
Published online: 13 November 2007
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https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.34.2.06kil
Summary
This article examines shared motifs in the history of the study of grammatical gender in North American Indian and Indo-European languages. Specifically, I investigate the degree of semantic and cultural motivation attributed to gender in Algonquian languages, and present analogies with accounts of gender in Indo-European. The presence of exceptions within animate gender in Algonquian has led to conflicting interpretations: while some focused on the arbitrary nature of the categorization, others regarded them as culturally based. Algonquian languages provide an example of how claims that have traditionally been made about Indo-European gender, particularly its supposed semantic arbitrariness, have been extended to languages apparently less suited for the purpose.
Résumé
Cet article analyse les motifs communs dans les recherches sur le genre grammatical des langues des Indiens de l’Amérique du Nord ainsi que des langues indo-européennes. L’auteur porte tout particulièrement son attention sur le niveau des motivations sémantique et culturelle qui est attribué au genre dans les langues algonquiennes et présente des analogies existant entre les études de ce sujet dans ces langues et les langues indo-européennes. La présence d’exceptions dans le genre animé des langues algonquiennes menait à des interprétations contradictoires; d’une part, elle servait d’exemple de l’arbitraire de ce système de classification et, d’autre part, d’exemple de l’influence de facteurs culturels. Les langues algonquiennes constituent la preuve que les arguments habituellement tirés de l’étude du genre dans les langues indo-européennes, surtout l’arbitraire sémantique, ont été employés dans le cas de langues où tel ne semble pas être suffisamment le cas.
Zusammenfassung
Der Artikel analysiert parallele Motive in den bisherigen Studien über das grammatische Geschlecht in den nordamerikanischen Indianersprachen und in den indo-europäischen Sprachen. Dabei konzentriert er sich auf die semantischen und kulturellen Argumentationen, die bei der Genusbeschreibung in den Algonkin-Sprachen zum Tragen kommen und zeigt Analogien zu der Charakterisierung der Genera in den indo-europäischen Sprachen auf. Ausnahmen bei der Kategorie ‘belebtes Genus’ in den Algonkin-Sprachen führten zu widersprüchlichen Interpretationen: einerseits werden sie als Beleg für die Arbitrarität dieses Klassifikationssystems herangezogen, andererseits aber auch als Beispiel für die Auswirkung kultureller Faktoren. Die Algonkin-Sprachen sind ein Beleg dafür, wie gängige Argumente bei der Beschreibung des Genus in den indo-europäischen Sprachen, besonders ihre vorgebliche semantische Arbitrarität, auch auf Sprachen angewendet wurden, die sich dazu deutlich weniger anbieten.
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Cited by (6)

Cited by six other publications

Joseph, John E.
2022. Review of Kilarski (2021): A History of the Study of the Indigenous Languages of North America. Historiographia Linguistica 49:2-3 ► pp. 405 ff. DOI logo
van Eijk, Jan & Vincent Collette
2021. Plains Cree animacy–inanimacy hierarchy. Studies in Language 45:4 ► pp. 840 ff. DOI logo
Kilarski, Marcin
2016. Gender Asymmetries in Iroquoian Languages and their Cultural Correlates. Historiographia Linguistica 43:3 ► pp. 363 ff. DOI logo
Kilarski, Marcin
2018. American Indian Languages in the Eyes of 17th-Century French and British Missionaries. Studia Anglica Posnaniensia 53:s1 ► pp. 295 ff. DOI logo
Bavant, Marc
2008. Proto-Indo-European Ergativity… Still to be Discussed. Poznań Studies in Contemporary Linguistics 44:4 DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2021. A History of the Study of the Indigenous Languages of North America [Studies in the History of the Language Sciences, 129], DOI logo

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