Gender in Language Contact: Evidence from Faroese-Danish and Catalan-Spanish: Kyn og málsamband – dømi í føroyskum-donskum og katalanskum-sponskum

Abstract

Úrtak

Greinin snýr seg um kynstillutan í tveimum tvímæltum høpum. Í tí fyrra partinum av greinini verður hugt at føroyskum, og vit fara at vísa á, hvussu donsk lániorð hjálpa at gera av, hvat kyn er ómarkað, tí fleiri donsk orð, sum eru felagskyn skifta k yn til hvørkikyn í føroyskum enn øvugt. Seinni parturin er um kynstillutan í katalanskum arvorðum borið saman við spanskt, har
málini bæði ikki hava sama kyn. Vit síggja, at ein brúkstendensur er í trimum aldursbókum (3-5, 19-23 and 32-40). Munurin er mest at síggja, har munur er á, hvussu nógv katalanskt verður lært í skúlunum.

Abstract

This article deals with gender assignment in two different bilingual contexts. In the first part, we look at Faroese, and will show how Danish loanwords help us establishing default gender, as more Danish common gender nouns end up as neuter than neuter as common gender. The second part focuses on gender assignment in Catalan words that have lexical cognates in Spanish and which differ in gender in the two languages. It observes usage trends among three age groups (3-5, 19-23 and 32-40 years old) differing mainly in the degree of Catalan received at school. The speakers are from two districts of Barcelona (Gràcia and Nou Barris) differing in the presence and usage of Spanish.