Feminine education in animal names

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The feminine education in animal names can be carried out in two different ways: suppletion and motion.

Suppletion

The suppletion is an old means of feminine education. The feminine gender designations are formed from special roots in order to clearly differentiate the female from the corresponding male animal. This is most likely to be used with domestic animals or farm animals , as these are / were in close relation to humans and the gender difference is / was of greater importance here than with wild animals. Examples are the designations pig = boar - sow or horse = stallion / gelding - mare , beef = bull - cow / heifer , rabbit = rammer - zibbe .

Motion

The motion is the more recent means of creating feminine animal names. The motion was originally used more for wild animals . Here the term motion is used in a further unusual sense, which means that it also includes composition . In the narrower, usual sense, the motion is only a derivation by means of suffixation or a “movement” of the last letter, as it is often found in Spanish, for example in the pair of terms dog / male - bitch , which in Spanish is perr o - perr a . (On the other hand, Suffixation the suffix is in a form of animal designation (e.g., "-in" in German.) Attached Lion - Löwin ; Tiger - Tigerin ; cat - she-cat ). Often an umlaut is added to the female form of the animal designation ( wolf - she- wolf ).

There is also the possibility that the feminine is formed from a generic name that is indifferent to the gender distinction. This is the so-called epicoinon . For example, female from the dog and not the dog derived or doe from rabbits instead of bucks . The suffixation here normally remains the same, only the source word is different.

In the composition, the suppletivic individual name of a tame female animal usually takes on the role of the derivative suffix. This means that the name for a tame female animal that is formed by suppletion ( e.g. cow ) is appended to the male form of the wild animal name ( e.g. deer -> doe ).

swell

  • Helmut Glück (op. 2000): Metzler Lexicon Language. Stuttgart, Berlin: JB Metzler; Directmedia Pub. (Digital Library, Vol. 34).
  • Hermann Osthoff (1899): From the supplementary system of the Indo-European languages . Academic speech to celebrate the birth of the Blessed Grand Duke Karl Friedrich on November 22, 1899. delivered by Hermann Osthoff. Heidelberg: Hörning. [1]