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Gender Assignment in Six North Scandinavian Languages

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Gender Assignment in Six North Scandinavian Languages Journal of Germanic Linguistics 33.3 (2021):264–315 doi: 10.1017/S1470542720000173 Gender Assignment in Six North Scandinavian Languages: Patterns of Variation and Change Briana Van Epps, Gerd Carling Yair Sapir Lund University Kristianstad University This study addresses gender assignment in six North Scandinavian varieties with a three-gender system: Old Norse, Norwegian (Nynorsk), Old Swedish, Nysvenska, Jamtlandic, and Elfdalian. Focusing on gender variation and change, we investigate the role of various factors in gender change. Using the contemporary Swedish varieties Jamtlandic and Elfdalian as a basis, we compare gender assignment in other North Scandinavian languages, tracing the evolution back to Old Norse. The data consist of 1,300 concepts from all six languages coded for cognacy, gender, and morphological and semantic variation. Our statistical analysis shows that the most important factors in gender change are the Old Norse weak/strong inflection, Old Norse gender, animate/inanimate distinction, word frequency, and loan status. From Old Norse to modern languages, phonological assignment principles tend to weaken, due to the general loss of word-final endings. Feminine words are more susceptible to changing gender, and the tendency to lose the feminine is noticeable even in the varieties in our study upholding the three-gender system. Further, frequency is significantly correlated with unstable gender. In semantics, only the animate/inanimate distinction signifi- cantly predicts gender assignment and stability. In general, our study confirms the decay of the feminine gender in the Scandinavian branch of Germanic. Keywords: gender assignment, Germanic languages, North Scandinavian, historical linguistics, language change, typology 1. Introduction. This paper deals with gender assignment in six North Scandinavian languages, looking mainly at gender variation and how various factors © Society for Germanic Linguistics 2021. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.229, on 29 Sep 2021 at 07:48:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1470542720000173 Gender in North Scandinavian Languages 265 contribute to gender change. The gender systems of Scandinavian languages range from the three-gender system of Old Norse (preserved in Icelandic, Faroese, and some Mainland Scandinavian varieties) to the two-gender systems that have evolved in Danish, Standard Swedish, some dialects of Norwegian, and some Swedish dialects. In this study, we focus on gender assignment in six three-gender language varieties of North Scandinavian. We identify the factors that make it more likely for a lexical item to change gender and describe how gender assignment has changed from one variety to another. As a starting point, we take two lesser-known North Scandinavian varieties spoken in Sweden, Jamtlandic and Elfdalian, and compare them to Nysvenska (the variety of Swedish spoken in 1526–1880), Norwegian Nynorsk, Old Norse, and Old Swedish. We focus on instances where gender assignment in a cognate set is different between the language varieties, using these instances to make generalizations about the assignment principles at work in these varieties. Thus, a diachronic perspective allows us to shed light on synchronic gender assignment principles in the Scandinavian languages. While some studies exist on gender assignment in individual Scandinavian languages (Steinmetz 1985; Källström 1995; Trosterud 2001, 2006), this is the first in-depth study to take a comparative approach. We begin, in section 2, by presenting the theories of language change and gender assignment on which we base our work. In section 3, we give a brief background on the languages that figure in our study. In section 4, we discuss our hypothesis and method, including data compilation and coding. Section 5 gives an overview of the general patterns and gender distribution of the data. In sections 6 through 10, we discuss each of the various factors that influence gender assignment in our material. In section 11, we present a brief conclusion. The paper is accompanied by four appendices available at [https://github.com/gerdcarling/gendernorthscandinavian]: Appendix A gives the full set of data used in the study, in the form a wordlist coded for cognacy and status. Appendix B explains abbreviations used in this wordlist, and appendices C and D give results from the statistical tests, which are described in further detail in the study. 2. Theoretical Background. Gender of nouns is reflected as agreement on associated words (Corbett 1991:1). This agreement can occur on articles, verbs, possessives, adjectives, demonstratives, pronouns, numerals, adverbs, adpositions, and Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.229, on 29 Sep 2021 at 07:48:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1470542720000173 266 Van Epps, Carling, and Sapir complementizers (Corbett 1991:106–113). In this study, we focus on gender assignment, or the principles by which nouns receive a gender. Gender assignment is generally determined either by semantic, morpho- logical, or phonological principles; or by a combination of these. However, all gender systems have a semantic core (Corbett 1991:8). Morphological and phonological assignment principles are usually referred to as FORMAL ASSIGNMENT (in contrast to SEMANTIC ASSIGNMENT). Some languages (such as Tamil) have predominantly semantic assignment, while others (such as Russian) assign gender based on morphological principles. Still other languages have predominantly phonological assignment principles. The Scandinavian languages assign gender based on a combination of semantic and formal principles, with the strongest assignment principles revolving around the semantic core of biological sex (nouns denoting human males are masculine, and nouns denoting human females are feminine). In the literature, gender assignment is typically described in terms of rules, even though tendencies would be a more appropriate term. Gender assignment in general, as well as in our data, is highly variable and diverse, both synchronically as well as diachronically. Very few observed tendencies are exceptionless and would be seen as rules in the Neo- grammarian sense. While various assignment tendencies in Scandinavian are widely recognized in the literature (especially, the tendency to assign gender based on the semantic core and derivational suffixes), gender assignment for large parts of the lexicon is not transparent, though attempts to propose a set of gender assignment rules have been made (Steinmetz 1985, Källström 1996, Trosterud 2001, 2006). Some of the recognized assignment tendencies that are somewhat well established are listed in 1 and 2. (1) Semantic principles (semantic core) a. Words denoting human referents have gender corresponding to biological sex (Källström 1996:153, Trosterud 2006:1444–1445, 2001:35). b. Words referring to people without a specified sex are masculine (Trosterud 2001:35, 2006:1445). Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.229, on 29 Sep 2021 at 07:48:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1470542720000173 Gender in North Scandinavian Languages 267 c. Words denoting sexless beings and derogatory words referring to people are neuter (Källström 1996:153, Trosterud 2001:36). d. Words denoting animals are non-neuter in Swedish (Källström 1996:154); in Norwegian, words denoting animals are masculine (Kvinlaug 2011:51). e. Time concepts are non-neuter in Swedish (Källström 1996:154); time concepts are masculine in Old Norse (Trosterud 2006:1446); time concepts linked to the annual cycle are neuter in Old Norse (Trosterud 2006:1446). f. Words denoting plants are non-neuter in Swedish (Källström 1996:154); words for native trees are feminine in Norwegian (Trosterud 2001:41); words denoting trees are feminine in Old Norse (Trosterud 2006:1446); words denoting grains are neuter in Old Norse (Trosterud 2006:1446). g. Words for materials and masses are neuter in Norwegian (Trosterud 2001:40); words for substances and collectives are neuter in Swedish (Källström 1996:154). (2) Formal principles (morphological/phonological) a. Derivational suffixes i. -dómr, -skapr, and -ari are masculine in Old Norse (Trosterud 2006:1451); -dom, -skap, and -ar are masculine in Norwegian (Trosterud 2001:44). ii. -ion is non-neuter in Swedish (Källström 1996:159). iii. -eri is neuter in Swedish (Källström 1996:159) and Norwegian (Trosterud 2001:44). iv. -heit is feminine in Norwegian (Trosterud 2001:44); -het and -else are non-neuter in Swedish (Källström 1996:159). v. Deverbal nouns with -ing are feminine (Trosterud 2001:44). vi. Denominal and deadjectival nouns with -ing are masculine in Norwegian (Trosterud 2001:44). Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.229, on 29 Sep 2021 at 07:48:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1470542720000173 268 Van Epps,
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