gender voice variants

[John Cowan]

Milos Rancic scripsit:

> Not just Czech. All Slavic languages (Russian, Ukrainian, Polish etc.;
> circa ~500 millions of speakers) have clear distinction between
> masculine, feminine and neuter genders.

Indeed, the only European languages that I can think of in which "I am
(an) X" and "Are you (an) X?" don't don't depend on gender are English,
Scots, the Frisian languages, Dutch, the Scandinavian languages, Finnish,
Estonian, and Hungarian.

There is a Peter Wimsey story in which a French young lady is exposed
as a female impersonator when, in the heat of the moment, she says "Me
prends-tu pour un imbecile?"  It's called "The Entertaining Episode of
the Article in Question".

-- 
John Cowan  cowan at ccil.org  http://ccil.org/~cowan
In the sciences, we are now uniquely privileged to sit side by side
with the giants on whose shoulders we stand.
        --Gerald Holton