If your language has a grammatical gender, how to do you deal with loanwords?
All of them M./Fm./N. or they get the same gender as the native equivalent word?
All of them M./Fm./N. or they get the same gender as the native equivalent word?
It is true to some extent for the Latin feminines ending with -io, -tas
La common law.Probably because it looks similar to loi.I can't think of any word in the feminine form right now though I'm sure it exists.
Likewise for MoGrSome rules of thumb for the gender of modern loanwords in (European) Spanish:
- Words refering to people take the gender of the given person. For example, samurai is m, geisha is f, or hacker is m or f depending on the gender of the person.
Likewise for MoGr with some exceptions e.g «πιάνο» [piˈano] or [ˈpç͡ano] (pronunciation depends on the region) < Ιt. piano (masc.), which is neuter in Greek, while «ελίτ» [eˈlit] < Fr. élite (fem.), remains feminine.
- Words which come from other Romance languages preserve the original gender (élite f, from French; piano m, from Italian; paella f, from Catalan), with some exceptions (gofre m, from Fr. gaufre f).
In Greek these words are mostly neuter and uninflected e.g. «το μπλογκ» [to ˈblog] (neut. nom. sing.) --> the blog, «του μπλογκ» [tu blog] (neut. gen. sing.) --> of-the blog.
- Words which come from other languages families (especially English) almost always take the masculine gender (fútbol, blog, chat, hobby, email, mitin (meeting, from English; sushi, sudoku, from Japanese...).
Likewise for MoGr, these words are treated as inflected, patterned after existing, inherited, similar-sounding Greek words e.g. «η Μπουντεσλίγκα» [ i bundesˈliga] (fem. nom. sing.) --> the Bundesliga, «της Μπουντεσλίγκας» [tis bundesˈligas] (fem. gen. sing.) --> of-the Bundesliga, patterned after the inflection of the fem. Gr. nouns «λύσσα» [ˈlisa] or «λίγδα» [ˈliɣða] (that's the grammar rule, but unfortunately in reality one ofter hears (especially by "respected" anchormen/-women) on TV solecisms of the kind «η Ευρωλίγκα» [i evroˈliga] (fem. nom. sing.) --> the Euroleague, «της Ευρωλίγκα» [tis evroˈliga] (fem. gen. sing.) --> of-the Euroleague, treating the word as if Greek is an uninflected language).
- Borrowings which resemble existing words in Spanish usually take the gender of it: Bundesliga (liga f) is feminine, newsletter (letra f) vacillates.
The same happens in MoGr.
- Sometimes the current borrowings are abbreviations, like web, which is either masculine or feminine because it can mean both "website" (sitio web) or "webpage" (página web).
«Γκεστάπο» [ɟeˈstapo] is feminine in Greek too, because "Police" = «Αστυνομία» [astinoˈmi.a] is also feminine. The same for «σέλφι» [ˈselfi] = «η σέλφι» [i ˈselfi] (fem.), associated with «η φωτογραφία» [i fotoɣraˈfi.a] (fem.) --> the (fem. def. artcl.) photograph.
- Words like Gestapo are associated to a more general word (policía f), and take its gender (feminine here). Selfie is sometimes feminine because I guess people associate it with foto f.
Words ending in «-α», or «-η» are 99,9% feminine in MoGr. e.g. «η Σαρία» [i saˈɾi.a] (fem.) --> (the) Sharia, «η σάουνα» [i ˈsa.una] (fem.) --> (the) sauna.
- Words ending in -a vacillate (masc: vodka, manga, pijama, burka, karma; fem: katana, sauna, sharia, ikastola). Some seem to be simply random, but others may have some logic behind: manga (cómic m), katana (espada f "sword"), ikastola "Basque-speaking school" (escuela f).
These words in MoGr are taken as stranded adjectives, thus «Ουνέσκο» [uˈnesko] --> Unesco is feminine, «η Ουνέσκο» [i uˈnesko] because the feminine noun «οργάνωση» [orˈɣanosi] (fem.) --> organization, is implied, «ΝΑΤΟ» [ˈnato] is neuter, «το ΝΑΤΟ» because the neuter noun «σύμφωνο» [ˈsimfono] --> treaty, accord is implied etc.
- Acronyms usually take the gender of the most important word: Unesco, OTAN (organización f), sida (síndrome m), PSOE (partido m), CIA (agencia f).
ThanksNOTE: Bravo @Dymn a very thorough post.
Actually, there's a general tendency in BCS to assign only masculine or feminine gender to loanwords, thus neuter is reserved for "native" words. I can't offhand recall any recent loan which is neuter.