# Pregnant (+feminine marker?)



## MarX

Hello!

Please indicate whether the word for "pregnant" in the language you give has a (grammatical) feminine marker or not. For example in Spanish, the *-a* ending would be a feminine marker.

Manado Malay: *swanger/swangar*
Indonesian: *hamil*
German: *schwanger*

None of those three has any (grammatical) feminine marker.

Thank you!

Salam,


MarX


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## Conchita57

Both in French (1) and Spanish (2) the words for 'pregnant' take a feminine ending:

1.  Enceinte

2.  Embarazada.


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## Outsider

In Portuguese the word is _grávida_, and it does carry a feminine marker. In theory, it's possible to say the masculine equivalent _grávido_, but of course we would only do this as a joke.


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## robbie_SWE

The Romanian words also acquire feminine markers; *gravidă *and *însărcinată*. 

But the interesting thing is that *gravid* (without the feminine marker) still means "pregnant woman". 

*Însărcinat *can be used for men as a joke, but apart from the meaning of "pregnant" it can also mean "excise". 

 robbie


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## avok

Turkish:

*Hamile*

No feminine marker because there is no feminine / masculine markers in Turkish 

But I dont know the origin of the word it must be from Arabic so they may have a feminine marker because there is also "Hamil" in Turkish hmmm getting complicated...


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## Mahaodeh

In Arabic it is Hamil.  With no feminine marker when referring to a woman it's means "pregnant", with a feminine marker it can mean either pregnant (rarely) or "she that carries [something]".

It's worth noting that this is not the only word that does not carry a female gramatical marker but still used for women in Arabic.  It has been discussed in this post http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=852488 in the Arabic Forum.


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## Mjolnir

In *Hebrew* it's הרה (_hara_) or מעוברת (_meuberet_), both have feminine markers and can be changed to masculine words.

The most common word for pregnant is בהריון (_beherayon_), literally "in pregnancy" which doesn't have a feminine marker.

You can say that a man is בהריון (it's grammatically correct), but, well, it's like saying a man is pregnant.


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## queviva

Hello!

How do you say that in Yiddish?

Thanks!


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## MarX

avok said:


> Turkish:
> 
> *Hamile*
> 
> No feminine marker because there is no feminine / masculine markers in Turkish
> 
> But I dont know the origin of the word it must be from Arabic so they may have a feminine marker because there is also "Hamil" in Turkish hmmm getting complicated...


Neither does Indonesian have any genders. 

It must be a loanword from Arabic. Otherwise how come it could be so similar to Indonesian *hamil*.
I never have thought that it's a loanword from Arabic, either, because it sounds so Indonesian. Well, apart from the strong H, which is quite infrequent in native Indonesian words.


Thank you for the responses so far!


MarX


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## nino4ka

*Finnish:*
raskaana

It has no feminine marker, since Finnish in general doesn't mark anything either feminine or masculine.


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## Conchita57

In Lebanese you say:

-* Hebla*

and

- *mest'ime *

Both words take a feminine ending.


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## Conchita57

queviva said:


> Hello!
> 
> How do you say that in Yiddish?
> 
> Thanks!



The dictionary gives:

*- getrogene

- schwanger.
*


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## dudasd

In Serbian (as well as other Slavic languages) all the words for "pregnant" have feminine endings. They can have the masculine forms too, but then they got a different meaning. Example from my language:

trudna (f) - pregnant
trudan (m) - hard, heavy (about job), tired (about a man)

bremenita (f) - pregnant (and loaded)
bremenit (m) - loaded

teška (f) - pregnant (and heavy)
težak (m) - heavy

etc. The adjectives that describe gravid animals seem to have female forms only: skotna, steona, suprasna, suždrebna etc.

There are some specific phrases also: "to be in other state", "to be in blessed state" etc, but there it's the subject that clarifies the meaning.


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## Nizo

The Esperanto word is _graveda_.  There is no difference between masculine and feminine forms for adjectives.


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## francois_auffret

Mahaodeh said:


> In Arabic it is Hamil. With no feminine marker when referring to a woman it's means "pregnant", with a feminine marker it can mean either pregnant (rarely) or "she that carries [something]".
> 
> It's worth noting that this is not the only word that does not carry a female gramatical marker but still used for women in Arabic. It has been discussed in this post http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=852488 in the Arabic Forum.


 

Interestingly enough, Urdu, which has borrowed this word from Arabic, (through Persian) has a feminine marker to it....

*Hâmil* (bearing, carrying) - *Hâmila* (pregnant) (pronounced : Hâmla)

It would be interesting to know if Arabic historically ever had a feminine marker to this word, or if this is an addition of Persian or... Urdu... ?


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## Mahaodeh

Conchita57 said:


> -* Hebla*




I forgot that one, Hubla حبلى (MSA) which does carry a female grammatical marker.




francois_auffret said:


> It would be interesting to know if Arabic historically ever had a feminine marker to this word, or if this is an addition of Persian or... Urdu... ?



As I mentioned before, it is possible to use it with a female marker but it might be mistaken with another word, which means "a woman carrying", where the carrying refers to carrying anything (such as a handbag or burden or sac of suger or whatever).  Hence it has historically been used without the marker along with many other "female specific words" such "breastfeeding", "menstruating", "virgin"...etc.


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## avok

francois_auffret said:


> Interestingly enough, Urdu, which has borrowed this word from Arabic, (through Persian) has a feminine marker to it....
> 
> *Hâmil* (bearing, carrying) - *Hâmila* (pregnant) (pronounced : Hâmla)
> 
> It would be interesting to know if Arabic historically ever had a feminine marker to this word, or if this is an addition of Persian or... Urdu... ?


 

It is the same in Turkish. I wonder why? If "hamil" already means "pregnant" why do we both have "hamile" with a feminine marker?

Hmmm we use "hamil" to mean "bearing / carrying" too, for example: "Çek hamili": "the person who carries a cheque"


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## francois_auffret

avok said:


> It is the same in Turkish. I wonder why? If "hamil" already means "pregnant" why do we both have "hamile" with a feminine marker?
> 
> Hmmm we use "hamil" to mean "bearing / carrying" too, for example: "Çek hamili": "the person who carries a cheque"


 

Yes, in Urdu too, you use *Hamil* with the meaning carrying, in a few expressions though...
The first one is very high and official Urdu: 
*Hâmil-e hâza ko*.... (Written on bank notes)... to the bearer of this (note)

The other one which comes to my mind right now is:

*(ye nukta)*... *ahmiyat kâ hâmil hai ... *(You find this expression in papers or written)... Litterally means: (this point) is the bearer of importance... Is bearing importance.. is important...

*Hâmila* on the other hand is the basic and proper word for pregnant.

I don't know about the endings of Turkish, but I'd swear *Hamile* sounds like a Farsi (Persian) pronounciation of this Arabic feminine ending...


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## avok

francois_auffret said:


> Yes, in Urdu too, you use *Hamil* with the meaning carrying, in a few expressions though...
> The first one is very high and official Urdu:
> *Hâmil-e hâza ko*.... (Written on bank notes)... to the bearer of this (note)


 
This kind of expression is found as "Hamiline" (to the bearer" ) especially on cheques in Turkey. i.e. "the bearer" of this cheque shall be entitled to take the money from the bank.

Maybe both Turkish and Urdu borrowed the word hamile from Arabic while it meant pregnant and then the Arabs began to use hamil instead of hamile ...who knows *Avok cant stop pondering"


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## kittykate

It's _incinta_/_gravida_ in Italian and the -a ending is feminine. 
_Incinta_ only means _pregnant_, while _gravido_/_a_ can also mean _loaded_/_burdened with_, as in e.g., _gravido di pensieri_ = _loaded_/_burdened with thoughts_/_worries_

caterina


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## Outsider

Here's a thread about the word _embarazada/embaraçada_ in Spanish and Portuguese.

In Portuguese there is also the word _*prenhe*_ or _*prenha*_, a cognate of "pregnant" I believe, but nowadays it's used only for animals, except perhaps in some regions. I wonder if other Romance languages also have such a word, or make the same distinction between human pregnancy and animal pregnancy.


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## nino4ka

kittykate said:


> _Incinta_ only means _pregnant_, while _gravido_/_a_ can also mean _loaded_/_burdened with_, as in e.g., _gravido di pensieri_ = _loaded_/_burdened with thoughts_/_worries_



That's interesting, I never thought of the more precise sense of these words before, even if I also speak Italian ! In fact in Finnish the expression 'raskaana' (=pregnant) means loaded/burdened with something, too. I think the Finnsih term doesn't necessarily give a very positive tone of being pregnant. :/


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## mgwls

Outsider said:


> In Portuguese there is also the word _*prenhe*_ or _*prenha*_, a cognate of "pregnant" I believe, but nowadays it's used only for animals, except perhaps in some regions. I wonder if other Romance languages also have such a word, or make the same distinction between human pregnancy and animal pregnancy.



Yes, in Spanish there's the word *preñada* which carries a feminine marker and which means the same as in Portuguese and is also only used for animals in our daily speech however not regularly. We mostly use "tener cría" (a neuter expression) in these cases, at least here, in my city. To be *preñado* can also mean to carry something but the word *embarazada* just means (or is always used with the sense of) being pregnant. However I looked the verb *embarazar* up in the dictionary (word which is usually used with the sense of "giving rise to pregnancy") and the first entry was "to impede, hinder or delay something".

Saludos


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## Conchita57

Outsider said:


> Here's a thread about the word _embarazada/embaraçada_ in Spanish and Portuguese.
> 
> In Portuguese there is also the word _*prenhe*_ or _*prenha*_, a cognate of "pregnant" I believe, but nowadays it's used only for animals, except perhaps in some regions. I wonder if other Romance languages also have such a word, or make the same distinction between human pregnancy and animal pregnancy.



In French, too, a distinction is often made between human and animal females.  The latter are usually 'pleines' rather than 'enceintes' (both are feminine adjectives).  Some people, though, will happily apply the adjective 'enceinte' to both.


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## cherine

avok said:


> Maybe both Turkish and Urdu borrowed the word hamile from Arabic while it meant pregnant and then the Arabs began to use hamil instead of hamile ...who knows


I don't think so, Avok. Although languages evolve, the Arabic word for pregnant "Hamil" didn't change. It was and still is used like this, even in the colloquial forms that use this word: we don't say Hamila or Hamile but Hamil (with a long "a").
When we add the feminine ending it means a female carrying something. Without the feminine ending it means: a pregnant woman.


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## Bombus

Danish: _gravid_
No feminine marker

Best regards,
Bombus


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## kusurija

In Czech: 
těhotná (*feminine marker *= -*á*). We can "construct" word těhotný(masc.), which is without sense. But this word is used in nonliteral language(which is in Czech very frequent) in plural těhotný = pregnant (pl.fem.). Literal form of this is těhotné.
Eufemism is "be in other state" = být v jiném stavu ((ona) je v jiném stavu).

In Lituanian:
nėščia (*feminine marker *= -*a*). We can "construct" word nėščias(masc.), which is without sense.
Eufemism is "she is (~in) waiting" = laukiasi.

In Japanese:
妊み女[haramionna] (marker is 女[onna] = woman)
or 妊婦[nimpu] (marker is 婦[fu] = woman)
or 産婦[sampu] (woman on the point of childbirth) 
and others.
As I'm not native Japanese, someone else will complete it.


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## panjabigator

francois_auffret said:


> Interestingly enough, Urdu, which has borrowed this word from Arabic, (through Persian) has a feminine marker to it....
> 
> *Hâmil* (bearing, carrying) - *Hâmila* (pregnant) (pronounced : Hâmla)
> 
> It would be interesting to know if Arabic historically ever had a feminine marker to this word, or if this is an addition of Persian or... Urdu... ?



Salaam Francois,

Could you use both words in a sentence for me?

The word for pregnant in Hindi is /garbhvatii/.  It has a feminine marker.  Not too sure what the Panjabi would be here.


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## francois_auffret

panjabigator said:


> Salaam Francois,
> 
> Could you use both words in a sentence for me?
> 
> The word for pregnant in Hindi is /garbhvatii/. It has a feminine marker. Not too sure what the Panjabi would be here.


 
Sat sri akal!

You have two examples in post 18 of this forum!

*Hâmil* as used in the first example I gave, and must be as much used as is *Dhârak* in Hindi... 

The other expression is more used though...

You have other ways to say it in Urdu: *peT say honâ*, *ummîd say honâ* (too general and too polite this one, I know) or *pâon* *bhârî honâ* (which is as in Punjabi= *pair bhârâ honâ*).

Cheers


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## panjabigator

Ah, much more clearer now that I see the parallel to /dhaRak/.  

I guess the most obvious 'pregnant' adjective is " (fulaa.n aurat) maa.n banne vaalii hai," however I can't remember how to clarify how "vaalii" would grammatically function.


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## francois_auffret

panjabigator said:


> Ah, much more clearer now that I see the parallel to /dhaRak/.
> 
> I guess the most obvious 'pregnant' adjective is " (fulaa.n aurat) maa.n banne vaalii hai," however I can't remember how to clarify how "vaalii" would grammatically function.


 
I think it is dhaarak, you know what's written on bank notes...

I don't understand your question about vaalii????


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## Flaminius

kusurija said:


> In Japanese:
> 妊み女[haramionna] (marker is 女[onna] = woman)
> or 妊婦[nimpu] (marker is 婦[fu] = woman)
> or 産婦[sampu] (woman on the point of childbirth)
> and others.
> As I'm not native Japanese, someone else will complete it.



These words are "pregnant woman." What have been referred to as "markers" are in fact "woman." The first one comes across vulgar in Modern Japanese.  The Japanese equivalent for "pregnant" is 妊娠している (where 妊 is the modern replacement of 姙) which is the imprefective form of the verb 妊娠する (to get pregnant).  As there is no gender distinction in Japanese, the notion feminine marker is extraneous here.

Etymologically 妊娠 can be viewed particularly a feminine phenomenon with 女 (woman, female) as a radical in the Chinese characters.  This, however, does not prevent hypothetical expressions such as 男性が妊娠した (A man got pregnant).


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## kusurija

Flaminius said:


> These words are "pregnant woman." What have been referred to as "markers" are in fact "woman." The first one comes across vulgar in Modern Japanese. The Japanese equivalent for "pregnant" is 妊娠している (where 妊 is the modern replacement of 姙) which is the imprefective form of the verb 妊娠する (to get pregnant). As there is no gender distinction in Japanese, the notion feminine marker is extraneous here.
> 
> Etymologically 妊娠 can be viewed particularly a feminine phenomenon with 女 (woman, female) as a radical in the Chinese characters. This, however, does not prevent hypothetical expressions such as 男性が妊娠した (A man got pregnant).


 
May I add pronunciations? 妊娠[ninshin], -している[-shiteiru], 妊娠する[ninshin suru], 男性が妊娠した[danse: ga ninshinshita(/dansei)]. すみません[sumimasen] Excuse me...


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## Giorgio Lontano

Outsider said:


> In Portuguese the word is _grávida_, and it does carry a feminine marker. In theory, it's possible to say the masculine equivalent _grávido_, but of course we would only do this as a joke.


 
In Spanish you can also use the equivalent for masculine _embarazado_, as a joke as well.




Conchita57 said:


> Both in French (1) and Spanish (2) the words for 'pregnant' take a feminine ending:
> 
> 1. Enceinte
> 
> 2. Embarazada.


 
There's also _preñada_ in Spanish, only it is used more often to refer to animals. And yes, it's femenine.


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## Giorgio Lontano

mgwls said:


> Yes, in Spanish there's the word *preñada* which carries a feminine marker and which means the same as in Portuguese and is also only used for animals in our daily speech however not regularly. We mostly use "tener cría" (a neuter expression) in these cases, at least here, in my city. To be *preñado* can also mean to carry something but the word *embarazada* just means (or is always used with the sense of) being pregnant. However I looked the verb *embarazar* up in the dictionary (word which is usually used with the sense of "giving rise to pregnancy") and the first entry was "to impede, hinder or delay something".
> 
> Saludos


 

Oops, I didn't see this before.


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## avok

cherine said:


> I don't think so, Avok. Although languages evolve, the Arabic word for pregnant "Hamil" didn't change. It was and still is used like this, even in the colloquial forms that use this word: we don't say Hamila or Hamile but Hamil (with a long "a").
> When we add the feminine ending it means a female carrying something. Without the feminine ending it means: a pregnant woman.


 
Hmm Ok


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## Quelle

MarX said:


> Hello!
> 
> Please indicate whether the word for "pregnant" in the language you give has a (grammatical) feminine marker or not. For example in Spanish, the *-a* ending would be a feminine marker.
> 
> Manado Malay: *swanger/swangar*
> Indonesian: *hamil*
> German: *schwanger*
> 
> None of those three has any (grammatical) feminine marker.
> 
> Thank you!
> 
> Salam,
> 
> 
> MarX


In German you're right if you use "schwanger" as a predicate.
But if you use it as a attributive adjective or as a noun you've to add endings.
Die Frau ist schwanger. (The woman is pregnant)
*Nominative*: Da ist die schwanger*e *Frau. (There is the pregnant woman)
*Genitive:* Das ist die Tasche der schwanger*en *Frau. (This is the bag of the pregnant woman.)
*Dative: *Gib es der schwanger*en* Frau. (Give it to the pregnant woman)
*Accusative:* Ich frage die schwanger*e* Frau. (I ask the pregnant woman)

For pregnant animals we use "trächtig" with the same endings.


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## Encolpius

*Hungarian*: no markers, so *terhes*


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## rusita preciosa

Russian has three genders: feminine, masculin and neuter.

беременн*ая* /beremennaya/ - fem.
беременн*ое* / beremennoye/ - neuter. This is not common, but possible,  since, for example, the word "animal" (животное /jivotnoye/) is neuter. 
беременн*ый* /beremennyi/ masc. This sounds strange, it could only be said jockingly.


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## sakvaka

nino4ka said:


> That's interesting, I never thought of the more precise sense of these words before, even if I also speak Italian ! In fact in Finnish the expression 'raskaana' (=pregnant) means loaded/burdened with something, too.:/



To be precise, it is the essive (~ as, like) form of _raskas_ (heavy). You have to do sme additional twisting if you use it as an attribute: _raskaana oleva nainen_. Never _raskas nainen_.


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## Orlin

rusita preciosa said:


> Russian has three genders: feminine, masculin and neuter.
> 
> беременн*ая* /beremennaya/ - fem.
> беременн*ое* / beremennoye/ - neuter. This is not common, but possible, since, for example, the word "animal" (животное /jivotnoye/) is neuter.
> беременн*ый* /beremennyi/ masc. This sounds strange, it could only be said jockingly.


 
The same applies to Bulgarian бременн*а*, бременн*о* and бременен respectively except that the masculine _бременен_ can also be used with "general" animal species names that are gramatically masculine, e. g. _бременен морж_ - this is probably the only possible way because as far as I know, there is no specific word for the female (derived from the male or from a different root).


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## rusita preciosa

Orlin said:


> _бременен морж_ - this is probably the only possible way because as far as I know, there is no specific word for the female (derived from the male or from a different root).


In Russian in this case it would still be strange to say *беременный морж* (pregnant seal; "seal" is masculine). We would say *беременная самка моржа* (*pregnant female seal* and "force" the word pregnant to be feminine).


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## bibax

> We can "construct" word těhotný (masc.), which is without sense.





> беременный /beremennyi/ masc. This sounds strange, it could only be said jockingly.


I do not understand why the masculine form of the adjective "pregnant" is without sense or sounds strange.

In some situations you have to use the masculine form, at least in Czech:

"Já nejsem těhot*ný*, těhot*ná* je moje žena."
_"I am not pregnant (masc. marker), it is my wife who is pregnant (fem. marker)."_

Thomas Beatie je opět těhot*ný*.
_Thomas Beatie is again pregnant (masc. marker)._

*** Druhý těhotný muž na světě! *** (title in a newspaper)
_The second pregnant (masc. marker) man in the world!_

(Thomas Beatie and Scott Moore are transsexuals, of course. In fact they are women.)


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## apmoy70

In Greek:
«Eγκυμονούσα» (eŋɟimo'nusa, _f._-->child-bearing) and «έγκυος» ('eŋɟios, _f._-->pregnant) are feminine. The first one is clearly a feminine present participle (demonstrated by the feminine ending «-ουσα») and the latter a second declension feminine noun. It is possible to use the male present participle «εγκυμονών» (eŋɟimo'non) in conjunction with a male noun, e.g. «κίνδυνος» ('cinðinos-->danger). 
«Εγκυμονών κίνδυνος» is the "conveying/coming danger".  It's also possible to turn the feminine noun into a male one by altering...nothing. 2nd declension feminine nouns have «-ος» endings just like male nouns (but they have feminine articles and modifiers): «Ο έγκυος» (o 'eŋɟios)-->male, «η έγκυος» (i 'eŋɟios)-->female. Of course, the male noun «o έγκυος» (o 'eŋɟios) is simply absurd.

[ŋ] is a velar nasal 
[ɟ] is a voiced palatal plosive
[c] is a voiceless palatal plosive


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## mataripis

Tagalog: 1.Buntis    2.)Nagdadalang tao    no feminine marker but used only for female gender.


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## AutumnOwl

*Swedish:*
Gravid, havande; dräktig (for animals), no feminine marker.


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## sakvaka

nino4ka said:


> *Finnish:*
> raskaana
> 
> It has no feminine marker, since Finnish in general doesn't mark anything either feminine or masculine.



And _tiineenä_ when it refers to eg. cows.


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