# gender for body parts



## MiamianIsraeli

I had been talking to a native-speaking friend when we happened on a possibly breakthrough discovery! Body parts that expressed in pairs are usually feminine, when they are expressed as regular plural words they're masculine. Of course, there are always exceptions: cheek, hand/palm. What does everyone think? 

דברתי אם חברה ישראלית וגילינו משהו שיכול לעזור מעד. בדרך כלל חלקי גוף שמבוטים כמו זוגות נקבה וההם מבטוים ברבים רגילים זכר בוודאי, תמיד יש יוצא מן הכלל: כף, לטס. מה אתם חושבים?​ 
*זכר*
ראש
אף
פה
סנטר
חזה
אצבע
מרפק
לב​ 
*נקבה*
עין
אוזן
שפה
שן
לטס
יד
רגל
ברך
כף​


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## DrLindenbrock

Hi,
just for the fun of it I realised I wanted to see if with just a very very basic knowledge of Hebrew and the help of Arabic I was able to figure out what the body parts were in English. 
However, even after looking in the 3 on-line dictionaries Elroy put in the Resources section, I didn't find the meaning of לטס . Actually, I didn't even find the word. Any suggestions?  
Well, since I already did the "work", here is the list of the body parts with the English translation.
 
*זכר*
ראש head
אף nose
פה mouth
סַנְטֵר chin
חָזֶה  chest, thorax, breast, bosom
אצבע finger
מַרְפֵּק  elbow
לֵב heart

*נקבה*
עין eye
אוזן ear
שָׂפָה  lip
שן tooth
לטס ?
יד hand
רגל foot
בֶּרֶךְ  knee
כַּף  palm of the hand


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## MiamianIsraeli

DrLindenbrock said:


> Hi,
> just for the fun of it I realised I wanted to see if with just a very very basic knowledge of Hebrew and the help of Arabic I was able to figure out what the body parts were in English.
> However, even after looking in the 3 on-line dictionaries Elroy put in the Resources section, I didn't find the meaning of לטס . Actually, I didn't even find the word. Any suggestions?
> Well, since I already did the "work", here is the list of the body parts with the English translation.
> 
> *זכר*
> ראשhead
> אף nose
> פה mouth
> סַנְטֵר chin
> חָזֶה chest, thorax, breast, bosom
> אצבע finger
> מַרְפֵּק elbow
> לֵב heart
> 
> *נקבה*
> עין eye
> אוזן ear
> שָׂפָה lip
> שן tooth
> לטס?
> יד hand
> רגל foot
> בֶּרֶךְ knee
> כַּף palm of the hand


Hmm. I didn't find it in the dictionary either. My friend told me that it means cheek, but I found לחי which is feminine.


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## Nunty

Do you suppose it's a typo (rather a complex one, I admit) for לסת, jaw?


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## MiamianIsraeli

Nun-Translator said:


> Do you suppose it's a typo (rather a complex one, I admit) for לסת, jaw?



I don't think so, but maybe I misunderstood.  Anyway, what do you all think about the concept? Body parts expressed as pairs in plural are feminine, otherwise they're masculine, for example: עיניים, אוזניים, שפתיים.


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## Nunty

Well, I'm not sure it's a breakthrough, but it's a good rule of thumb. Beware, however of שדיים, breasts, which is masculine.


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## MiamianIsraeli

Nun-Translator said:


> Well, I'm not sure it's a breakthrough, but it's a good rule of thumb. Beware, however of שדיים, breasts, which is masculine.


Okay. Sometimes you have to think about the reasons underlying the "logic" of applying gender to concepts. Sometimes, there cannot possibly be any logic. This appears to be one of those instances.


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## Nunty

I don't think there is any logic, not even internal to a given language, except maybe very deeply buried. It would probably be necessary to do historical, almost archeological, linguistics (if such a thing exists) to discover it. Why, for instance, would two organs related to motherhood (רחם, שד breast, uterus) be masculine nouns?

I think that gender, like prepositions, just has to be memorized. Sorry.


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## amikama

MiamianIsraeli said:


> דיברתי עם חברה ישראלית וגילינו משהו שיכול לעזור מאוד. בדרך כלל חלקי גוף שמבוטאים כמו זוגות בריבוי זוגי הם ממין נקבה, וההם ואלו שמבוטאים ברבים רגילים בריבוי רגיל הם ממין זכר. בוודאי, תמיד יש יוצא מן הכלל: כף, לטס (מה זה?). מה אתם חושבים?


Just some corrections  

Very nice rule of thumb, but still there are some exceptions that should be memorized. For example, the plural of נחיר is נחיריים (dual plural), but it's masculine, not feminine. 


> *זכר*
> אצבע​


אצבע is feminine, not masculine.​


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## MiamianIsraeli

amikama said:


> Just some corrections
> 
> Very nice rule of thumb, but still there are some exceptions that should be memorized. For example, the plural of נחיר is נחיריים (dual plural), but it's masculine, not feminine.
> 
> אצבע is feminine, not masculine.​



תודה על כל התיקונים


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## Aoyama

Can't write hebrew on this PC, haval ...
Just some other food for thought, about *gender for body parts*, here taking french and ... chinese (and also japanese).
The concept of *yin* (feminine) and *yang* (masculine) can also work to understand why body parts are feminine or masculine (in a language where gender applies).
In french, _pied (foot)_ will be M whereas _main (hand)_ will be F
_bras (arm)_ will be M whereas _jambe (leg)_ will be F
eyes, nose will be M, ears, mouth will be F
heart, breast, lungs, kidneys will be M
bladder will be F
most sexual parts (male and female) will be M except vulva
the list is long, but by and large (with , inevitably, some exceptions) it fits the yin and yang frame (though, of course, no one knew about it in ancient times).
In the case of hebrew, it would also be interesting to compare. The fact that the dual plural (for paired organs), is [almost] always (?) masculine is a problem here ...


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