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A SIMPLIFIEDAPPROACH FOR TEACHING THE
GENDER OF SPANISH NOUNS
JOHN J. BERGEN
The University of New Mexico
TABLE 1
THE GENDEROF SPANISHNOUNS ACCORDINGTO PREVIOUSSTUDIES
CRITERIA FOR CLASSIFICATION EXAMPLES Rules3 given by
B BBL Dal DS Din R
I MASCULINEGENDERNOUNS
A. According to meaning
(1) male beings el toro 1 1 1 1 1
(2) masculine persons el muchacho 1
(3) countries Exceptions: those el Perui 2 2
(4) districts ending in unaccented Aragdn 3
(5) divisions of -a (e.g., Espaiia)
territory el Peloponeso 4
(6) rivers Exceptions: epithets el Sena 3 5
(7) oceans which are properly el Atldntico 4 6
(8) seas not el Adridtico 5
femininea proper
originally
()mountains pr
names (la Sierra 6 7
(9) mountains el Etna
(10) mountain chains Nevada) los Andes 8
(11) cities Exceptions: those Jerez 9
(12) towns ending in -a (Sevilla) El Salto 10
(13) villages El Fuerte 11
(14) numbers tres 7
(15) days of the week el lunes 8
(16) monthsof the year enero 9
(17) ships el Virginia
de Churruca 10
(18) geographical directions el sur 11
865
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866 JOHN J. BERGEN c1
Hispania (Dec. 1978)
B. Accordingto grammaticalform
(19) infinitives el leer 2 12 12
(20) phrases el que dijeras
eso 13
(21) indeclinable words el si 13 14
(22) compound nouns el tocadiscos 2
C. Accordingto etymology
(23) words of Greekorigin el programa 14
ending in (24) -ma el clima 3 3
(25) -ama el telegrama 2
(26) -ema el sistema 3
(27) -oma el idioma 4
(28) -pa el mapa 4 4
(29) -ta el planeta 5 5
D. Accordingto termination,i.e., nouns ending in
(30) -n el ademdn 2 5
(31) -o el hielo 3 6 6 6 15 15
(32) -r el cardcter 4 7
(33) -s el pats 5 8
(34) -e el golpe 6 9
(35) -1 el ideal 7 10 7
(36) any terminalexcept -a, -d, -cidn, -sidn,
-tidn, -xidn, -sis, and -itis el espiritu 8
(37) any terminalexcept -a, -d, -cidn, -sion,
-umbre, -sis, -itis, the female marking suffix
-iz, and the abstractnoun-forming
suffix -ez el reloj 11
(38) a stressedsyllable . . el cafi 16a
Exceptions:those with usual feminine
endings (la vejez)
especiallythose ending in -r, -1 ... el amor 16b
el animal 16c
Exceptions:those ending in a stressed
syllable containing -id- (la miel)
and -dn el rincdn 16d
Exceptions:those ending in -idn (la
nacidn)
E. Accordingto other phonologicalproperties
(39) uncommonwordswith a stressed-a- in
the first syllable el gaje 17
(40) words with diphthongsin the stressed el viaje 18a
syllable, especially-di- and -u4i- el baile 18b
el guante 18c
(41) words of one syllable el sol 19
Exceptions:those ending in -z (la cruz)
(42) polysyllabicwords el horizonte 20
Exceptions:those (a) with diphthongs-
la corriente,(b) stressedon the last
syllable-la catedral,(c) with stressed
-4- in the firstsyllable- la cldmide,
(d) which are gender-ambivalent-el
consonante, la consonante
II FEMININE GENDER NOUNS
A. Accordingto meaning
(43) female beings la muchacha 9 12 8 7 21 16
(44) letters of any alphabet la b 22 17
B. According to termination,i.e., nouns ending in
(45) -a la cabeza 10 13 9 8 23
Exceptions:wordsof Greekorigin
ending in -ma (el drama) 18
(46) -d la merced 11 14 10
(47) -ad la bondad 24
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THEGENDEROF SPANISHNOUNS
TEACHING 867
(48) -ud la salud 25
(49) -dad la ciudad 9 19
(50) -tad la libertad 10 20
(51) -tud la virtud 11 21
(52) -idn la opini6n 12 26 22
(53) -cidn la condicidn 12 15 11 13
(54) -sidn la confusio'n 13 16
(55) -tidn la cuestidn 14
(56) -xidn la conexidn 15
(57) -is la bilis 27
(58) -sis la sintesis 16 17
(59) -itis la hepatitis 17 18
(60) -umbre la costumbre 19 14 28 23
(61) -ie la superficie 15 29 24
(62) -z la paz 12 30
(63) the female marking suffix -iz la actriz 20
(64) the abstract noun-forming suffix -ez la rapidez 21
C. According to other phonological properties
(65) common words with a stressed -i- in the
first syllable la calle 31
(66) most words with stressed -ie- la fiebre 32
(67) some words with stressed -ud- la suerte 33
III GENDER-AMBIVALENT NOUNS
(68) nouns ending in -ista el turista 13 16
la turista
(69) nouns ending in -a and which can refer el espia
to a male person la espia 14
(70) nouns ending in -a and which can refer
to males or females according to the el compatriota
gender which they exemplify la compatriota 25
TOTAL NUMBER OF RULES IN EACH STUDY 17 21 14 16 33 25
The abbreviations B, BBL, Dal, DS, Din, and R are used in this table to refer to Bull, Bull et
al., Dalbor, Da Silva, Dinnes, and Ramsey respectively.
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868 JOHN J. BERGEN Hispania 61 (Dec. 1978)
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TEACHING THE GENDER OF SPANISH NOUNS 869
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870 JOHN J. BERGEN Hispania 61 (Dec. 1978)
el adive 'the jackal' esa Aiguila 'that eagle' epicene nouns in the literary standard do
el buho 'the owl' la ardilla 'the squirrel' have contrastinggender forms in more col-
el canario'the canary' la cebra 'the zebra'
el coyote 'the coyote' la cotorra 'the parrot' loquial usage, the sex of the referents be-
el escarabajo 'the la comadreja 'the ing denoted by the contrasts in grammati-
black-beetle' weasel' cal gender (e.g., el avestruz : la avestruza
el gaviiMn 'the hawk' la jaca 'the pony' 'the ostrich,' el cabro : la cabra 'the goat,'
el gorila 'the gorilla' la llama 'the llama' and several other pairs).1' Finally, the gen-
However, some animal names which are der classificationsof nouns which have in-
TABLE 2
A NEW FRAMEWORK THE GENDEROF SPANISH NOUNS
FORDETERMINING
CRITERIA POR
CLASSIFICATION FEMININEGENDERNOUNS MASCULINEGENDERNOUNS
A. Sex of the (1) one female: la vaca, la mujer, (2) one male: el toro, el poeta, Luis
referent Isabel
B. Terminal (3) -a: la cocina (10) any terminal except those given
letter(s) (4) -d: la humanidad in rules (3)-(9), especially
of the noun (5) -z: la luz (10.1) -1: el papel
(6) -idn: la instruccidn (10.2) -o: el oro
(7) -umbre: la costumbre (10.3) -n: el volcan
(8) -ie: la serie (10.4) -e: el nombre
(9) unstressed -is: la tesis (10.5) -r: el poder
(10.6) -s: el mes
and also
(10.7) other terminals: el
rubi, el tisti, el reloj, el al-
bum, el cenit, el finix, el
Uruguay
C. Exceptions I. Classes of exceptions
(11) common nouns with stressed -4- (12) nouns of Greek origin ending
in the first syllable: la clase in -ma: el clima
II. Gender-ambivalentnouns
Nouns which are markedas ambivalent
(13) Those which end in -a and, as masculinegender nouns, refer to a male:
atleta, policia, escolta, guia
The most obvious nouns are those markedby the derivationalsuffixes
-ata: acrobata
-icola: agricola
-cida: homicida
-ista-: novelista
-ita: moscovita
-ota: patriota
(14) Those which end in -1, -o, -n, -e, or -r and, as feminine gender nouns,
refer to a female: infiel, reo, joven, c6mplice, martir
The most obviousnouns are those markedby the derivationalsuffixes
-al: criminal
-ante ~ -(i)ente: habitante, descendiente, residente
-(i)ense: londinense, parisiense
Unmarkedgender-ambivalentnouns
Those which have inanimatereferents:arte
Pairs of homophonousnouns of oppositegenders: orden
III. Individual exceptions
la senial la metr6poli el dia
la foto la tribu el
la imagen la troj el atatd
arroz
la gente la ley el avidn
la flor el pardntesis
la tos
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TEACHINGTHE GENDEROF SPANISH NOUNS 871
animate referents have no semantic basis. Inasmuch as feminine gender nouns are
For example, el objeto, el rostro, el lecho, identified by these seven rules there is just
and el drbol are masculine gender nouns one phonemic criterion for identifying
whereas the semantically similar forms la masculine gender nouns-they generally
cosa, la cara, la cama, and la planta are of end in any letter except the seven markers
the feminine gender. just mentioned. The most common mas-
There is an obvious descriptive and ped- culine gender markers are -1, -o, -n, -e, -r,
agogical need to explain, not only the cri- and -s. These letters form a mnemonic de-
teria for determining the gender of nouns vice-the word "loners"-by which students
referring to one male or one female, but can readily identify most masculine gen-
even moreso the rules for identifying the der nouns. We believe that it is easier to
gender of all other nouns. The rules of remember "loners"than the nonsense word
this latter type are phonemic in nature and "norsel" which is proposed for this same
are presented in the following sub-section. purpose by Bull et al., SFC: Level Three,
3.2. Phonemic rules for gender classifi- pp. 156 and 446. Examples of masculine
cation. Both Dinnes (p. 488) and Bull (p. gender nouns marked by "loners,"as well
as by other terminals, are:
110) maintain that phonemic criteria play
a more significant role in gender classifica- (1) -1: el drbol, el clavel, el papel . ..
(2) -o: el dedo, el hierro, el rayo .. .
tion than has been traditionally recog- -n: el almacen, el desddn, el pan ...
(3)
nized. The following is a smaller but a (4) -e: el ambiente, el bosque, el instante . ..
more comprehensive and a more accurate (5) -r: el exterior, el rumor, el temor . ..
set of phonemically-basedrules than those (6) -s: el jueves, el mes, el tacadiscos . .
given in Dinnes, Bull, or Bull et al., which (7) other terminals, namely,
(as already indicated) are the most accu- -i: el bisturi,el colibri,el rubi . .
rate previous treatmentsof Spanish gender. -u: el biricui, el esplritu, el tiszi . .
-J: el boj,el carcaj,el reloj. ..
Feminine gender nouns typically end in: -m: el dlbum, el islam, el memordndum ...
-t: el acimut, el cenit, el ddficit. ..
(1) -a: la arena, la casa, la paciencia . . . -x: el climax, el finix, el t6rax ...
(2) -d: la sociedad, la libertad, la virtud, la -y: el carey, el Paraguay, el pejerrey ...
pared . ..
As shown by the examples, this rule subsumes The phonemic marking of masculine
nouns derived with the feminine gender suffixes gender forms indicates that, contraryto the
-dad, -tad, and -tud (which are treated individ- claims of tradition (e.g., as maintained by
ually in many other studies),"1 as well as other the Real Academia Espafiola, pp. 11-12,
nouns ending in -d.
and by Stockwell et al., p. 78), Spanish
(3) -z: la cruz, la nariz, la vejez . . .12 does not have a neuter gender. That is, the
(4) -ion: la leccicn, la prisi1n, la cuestidn, la term "neuter gender" has inappropriately
reflexirn, la regirn, la opinicn ...
been used to classify the pronouns esto,
This marker includes the feminine gender suf-
fixes, cidn, -sidn, -tidn,-xidn,-gidn,and -irn which eso, aquello, ello, and (in some of its oc-
are given as separaterules (with some of these currences) lo, since these five words are the
variants even being omitted)13 in other treat- only overt remnantsin Spanish of the Latin
ments. neuter gender. However, their association
(5) -umbre: la costumbre, la lumbre, la mu- with a neuter gender is a consequence of de-
chedumbre...
scribing Spanish grammaraccording to the
(6) -ie: la especie; la serie, la superficie. . .
categoriesof Latin grammar.The latter did
(7) unstressed -is: la tesis, la apendicitis, la have a neuter gender which was lost in the
bilis . . .
Most prominent among the feminine gender evolution of Latin into Spanish. But in
nouns marked by atonic -is are learned words view of the definition of grammaticalgen-
derived with the Greek suffixes -sis and -itis. der (given in Section 2), these five "neu-
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872 JoHN J. BERGEN Hispania 61 (Dec. 1978)
ter" forms, rather than constituting a third the rules given above, thereby further re-
gender, are merely masculine gender pro- ducing the amount of memorization to
nouns: they terminate in -o (the most fre- which students must be subjected. (Com-
quent marker of masculine gender forms) pare Bull, p. 108.) That is, exceptions are
and their modifiers show the same formal dealt with in three distinct fashions.
agreement as do the modifiers of other 3.31. Classes of exceptions. There are
masculine gender forms (compare El perro two large groups of exceptions whose gen-
es pequeiio and Esto es pequeio). Further- ders are marked as follows.
more, since gender-variable adjectives (1) Nouns of high frequency with a
agree in gender with the noun or pronoun stressed -4- in the first syllable are gener-
that they modify, the recognitionof neuter
ally feminine: esta ave, la base, la calle, la
gender pronouns would erroneously imply cdrcel, la carne, la clase, la frase, la (ver-
that adjectives also have a separate in-
dadera) hambre, la llave, la parte, la san-
flected form for the neuter gender, a form
gre, la tarde, la mano, la sal, etc. Of the
which in all cases would be homophonous
eight rules discovered by Dinnes-i.e.,
with the masculine singular form of the rules (38)-(42) and (65)-(67) in Table 1
adjective. It is obvious, therefore, that -this is the only rule which we find use-
Spanish does not have a grammaticalneu- ful. Dinnes suggests that common nouns
ter gender. Of course, these five pronouns with a stressed -a- in the first syllable are
are semantically neuter."4 of the feminine gender as a result of
The semantic and phonemic rules (de- "strong association with the feminine
scribed in Sections 3.1 and 3.2) are an [word-final]a" (p. 489), the most frequent
ordered set of rules, the former applying feminine gender marker.However, Dinnes
before the latter. Thus, regardless of its does not observe that most of these femi-
terminal letter(s), a noun which refers in- nine gender nouns are also bisyllabic, with
variably to one male is of the masculine the majority of these having the vowel -e-
gender (el cura, el abad, el juez, el cen- in their second syllable; these two charac-
turidn) and one which always designates teristics should also be mentioned to stu-
one female is of the feminine gender (Ra- dents as further aids in identifying excep-
quel, Consuelo, Carmen, la madre, la mu- tions of this group. Compare rules (10.1),
jer, Dolores, la huri). Nevertheless, the (10.2), and (10.4) in Table 2 (el papel,
vast majority of nouns which are classified el oro, el nombre, etc.) to which these
for gender on the basis of the sex of their feminine gender notns are exceptions.
referent also terminate in the letters which (2) The other class of exceptions consists
regularly mark nouns of their particular of nouns of Greek origin ending in -ma
grammatical gender, be it masculine (el but which, contraryto rule (3) in Table 2
coronel, el abuelo, el capitdn, el hombre, (la bebida, la distancia, la partida,etc.), are
el director, el dios, el rey) or feminine (la of the masculine gender: el clima, el dra-
reina, Felicidad, la actriz, Encarnacidn, ma, el idioma, el problema, el sistema, el
Gertrudis). tema, and many others (see the Real Aca-
The nouns which are not classified by demia Espaiiola, p. 14).
the semantic rules and which are excep- 3.32. Gender-ambivalentnouns. A rela-
tions to the phonemic rules are discussed tively small number of Spanish nouns
below.
(roughly 1165-or 3%-of the 38,233
3.3. Exceptions to the phonemic rules nouns in the lexicon)'1 are of both gen-
for gender classification. There are even ders. The majority of these nouns can be
well-defined criteria for readily identifying identified as ambivalent by the fact that
the gender of many of the exceptions to they fall into one of two groups.
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TEACHINGTHE GENDEROF SPANISH NOUNS 873
(1) The largest of these groups consists male as masculine gender forms, there are
of gender-ambivalentnouns which end in also numerous gender-ambivalent nouns
-a and, as masculine gender forms, refer to which end in regular masculine gender
a male being (almost always a male per- markers (-1, -o, -n, -e, and -r) and which
son). Usually as feminine gender forms refer to one female as feminine gender
they refer to a female being (again, gen- forms (and to one male as representative
erally a female person). The most easily of the masculine gender); again, the ani-
identified members of this group are deriv- mate referent is almost always a person.
atives built with the following six deriva- The most readily identified members of
tional suffixes: this group of ambivalent nouns are those
(a) -ata: acrdbata, burdcrata, tedcrata . . . derived with the following three suffixes:
(b) -icola: agricola, horticola, viticola . . (a) -al: criminal, provenzal, rival . ..
(c) -cida: deicida, homicida, parricida .. .
(b) -ante -(i)ente:16 amante, descendiente,
(d) -ista: analista, egoista, novelista . . . residente . . .
(e) -ita: carmelita, israelita, moscovita . .
(f) -ota: cabezota, compatriota, idiota . . . (c) -(i)ense: canadiense, cretense, estadouniden-
se . . .
Other similarly ambivalent nouns are an- Other nouns which are ambivalent in this
gora, atleta, astronauta,bdquira, centinela, same way are:
espia, hincha 'rabid sports fan,' indigena, infiel modelo joven cdmplice mdrtir
guia 'guide,' miscara 'masquerader,'paria, reo virgen consorte
and policia 'policeman, policewoman.' Al- testigo c6nyuge
though as masculine gender nouns they al- hereje
ways refer to a male being, as feminine tigre
gender nouns some of these ambivalent In contrast to marked gender-ambivalent
forms do not refer to a female being (as nouns, which have different referents (one
illustrated above), but rather denote: or both of which is a single animate en-
(a) a group of the persons in question: tity) according to the gender which they
el guardia 'the guardsman' represent, unmarked ambivalent nouns
la guardia 'the guard' (as a corps) often have the same inanimate referent ir-
el policia 'the policeman' respective of the gender which they ex-
la policia 'the police (force)' emplify in a given occurrence.17 In the
(b) a group of inanimate entities: following list the more common gender of
el escolta 'the escort' (one who accompanies such nouns is indicated first:
a woman in public)
la escolta 'the escort' (a group of ships or air- el, la andilisis la, el dote
ese, esa arte la, el margen
planes accompanying a convoy)
el, la linde la, el tilde
(c) a single inanimate referent: el, la mar
el ayuda 'the aide, assistant' el, la prez
la ayuda 'the aid, assistance' It is simpler and pedagogically preferable
el barba 'the actor who plays old men's parts'
for beginning and intermediate students to
la barba 'the beard; the chin'
el calavera 'the hot-brained fellow'
learn the nouns listed above, not as gender-
la calavera 'the skull' ambivalent, but rather as members of the
el guia 'the guide' gender which they usually exemplify. Sim-
la guia 'the guidebook; the guide sign' ilarly, in modern usage the following rare-
el vigia 'the watch, lookout' ly occur as feminine gender nouns, and
la vigia 'the watchtower; the act of watching'
consequently should be taught, even to
el vista 'the customs surveyor' advanced students, as masculine gender
la vista 'the view; sight' rather than gender-ambivalent nouns:
(2) In the same way as many gender- azicar, calor, color, cutis, fin, origen, pro,
ambivalent nouns ending in -a refer to one and puente.
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874 JOHN J. BERGEN Hispania 61 (Dec. 1978)
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TEACHING THE GENDER OF SPANISH NOUNS 875
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876 JOHN J. BERGEN Hispania (61 (Dec. 1978)
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