# Languages with gender--what gender is "internet"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 11, 2006, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-with-gender-what-gender-is-internet/376090 "2006-10-11T19:25:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2006, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-with-gender-what-gender-is-internet/376090/41 "2006-10-14T04:07:02Z")
Regarding Japanese counters: Not just dozens, at least 100. My fairly concise Japanese dictionary has 8 1/2 pages devoted to counters, at about 12-13 per page. There are probably even more that are not common enough to be listed, or that have fallen out of modern usage but are still used in literature. You can get away with using a handful of these most of the time, but after six years here I still encounter new ones. I can usually get what the referent is from context, but not always. Frustrations are that the thing you’re counting sometimes disappears from the conversation once the subject has been established, or sometimes it isn’t even mentioned at all since it’s “obvious” from the counter used. Even worse, some things can be counted two (or more) ways. That can be useful sometimes though. A common way to double-check orders in restaurants is for the person to repeat the order back to the customer using different counters, preferably using the different numbering system **Frylock** mentioned to avoid confusion as to the actual number of items. (BTW, one numbering system is native Japanese, the other is imported from Chinese, which is one of the reasons they sound so different.) Example: \ _"Hottodogu wo ni-hon kudasai._" (Two [cylindrical item] hot dogs, please.) _“Hai, hottodogu wo futatsu de gozaimasu.”_ (Yes, that is two [miscelaneous small item] hot dogs.) If you say _futatsu_ instead, you’re likely to hear _ni-hon_ in response. All of which is completely unrelated to the topic since there’s no grammatical gender in Japanese. As a sop to the OP, I will point out that since “Internet” is a loan word, it’s almost always written in _katakana_ or rarely in roman letters; there is no official _kanji_ for it. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2006, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-with-gender-what-gender-is-internet/376090/42 "2006-10-14T04:27:06Z")
[QUOTE=Sleel] All of which is completely unrelated to the topic since there’s no grammatical gender in Japanese. As a sop to the OP, I will point out that since “Internet” is a loan word, it’s almost always written in _katakana_ or rarely in roman letters; there is no official _kanji_ for it. [/QUOTE] Didn’t I _just_ explain that sometimes such systems are analyzed as grammatical gender, and if not they’re a similar, probably related phenomenon? Why in the world would you say that it’s “unrelated”? ---
**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2006, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-with-gender-what-gender-is-internet/376090/43 "2006-10-17T05:15:07Z")
[QUOTE=Excalibre] Didn’t I _just_ explain that sometimes such systems are analyzed as grammatical gender, and if not they’re a similar, probably related phenomenon? Why in the world would you say that it’s “unrelated”? [/QUOTE] I was responding to **Frylock** ’s post, not yours. I frequently open up many different pages, read through them when I can, and start posting when I get a chance. Sometimes I don’t get a chance to actually post them until sometime the next day, and I don’t necessarily preview and read whatever the people who visited after me have put up. Your post wasn’t there when I started. Awfully sorry I missed out on your evident brilliance. :rolleyes: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-with-gender-what-gender-is-internet/376090.md?page=2)