I know there are many more animate and inanimate objects with gender differences, but it has always interested me, that ships are referred to as “He” while country is called “The Motherland” (feminine).
In Germany, I’m not so sure (although I should be). While I know country is “The Fatherland” (masculine), there seems to be some debate as to whether ships were referred to as “he” (Hitler era) or “she” (pre-Bismarck? - that’s my uncertainty).
So I was wondering: Since we’re an international internet community here, can someone shed some light on this and share some other gender nuances?
In Spanish some countries are “he” (USA, Brazil, Japan…) and some are “she” (Spain, France, China…). And some appear to be “it” (I sure can’t come up with another gender for Portugal).
The word “patria” is short for “tierra patria”, “land of your foreparents;” “tierra” is a she-word, therefore “patria” is a she-word and produces “la madre patria” (the mother-country) and “la patria chica” (the home-region within the home-country). Some Latin American people refer to Spain as “la madre patria,” meaning not so much “my motherland” but “the land which is the mother of my own homeland.”
Ships can be male or female; small ones often have female or humorous names (from “Mary Jane” to “Big Ship” - and it’s three meters long). A barca is smaller than a barco; lifeboats are the “barcas salvavidas” (lifesaving boats) of a barco. Lanchas, fragatas, carabelas are girls; portaaviones, destructores, petroleros are boys.
Hm. Bulgarian is a gendered language. Ship (korab/кораб) is masculine, but boat (lodka/лодка) is feminine. Bulgarians refer to Bulgaria as their motherland. Well, not very often, but it’s in the national anthem. My guess is that it has to do with Bulgaria being a feminine word. Like, a literal translation of the sentence “it is a pretty country” would be “she is a pretty country.”
Getting my students to stop writing stuff like that was much harder than I expected.
The term “fatherland” is neuter in German (because the main part is the neuter “land” i.e. "that land which is our fathers’ " rather than “that father who is our land”).
Ships are universally female in German nowadays but there was an usage until the early 20th century by which an exception was made according to the ship’s name: a very macho name like “Deutscher Adler” or “Hindenburg” led to a large part of speakers using the male gender.
Being Half-German (notice all the capitalizations?) I can speak the language fluently, and put my sentences together correctly (all the genders, perfectly!), but don’t often understand the grammar.
I’m an American-born speaker of English and I’ve never heard of the practice of referring to ships as “he.” In all the literature I’ve read, ships have been referred to with feminine or neuter pronouns. The Associated Press Stylebook did (and still does, for all I know) specifically instruct journalists to use neuter instead of feminine pronouns for ships – the idea of using masculine pronouns isn’t even entertained.
Apparently, the U.S. Navy Style Guide (who knew?) still calls for feminine pronouns for ships, but not for countries.
I think the film, The Hunt for The Red October, is the first time I ever knew that the Russians referred to their ships as “he” TWDUKE, therefore my post/question.
