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lazide • today at 1:49 PM • 2 replies • view on HN

It adds real world flavor, instead of mashing everyone and everything into the same grey goo of genderlessness.

It’s no surprise that the strongest (mainstream) gendered languages are also known as the ‘Romance languages’.

Is it logically simpler in some ways to not have it? Of course. Let’s not even talk about how complex gendered verb conjugations are in Spanish or Portuguese, for example.

But it does allow a lot of beautiful flourishes that add a lot of color.


Replies

piperswe • today at 2:13 PM

They're known as the Romance languages because the languages are rōmānicē (Roman-style), not because they're romantic.

tacitusarc • today at 2:20 PM

Romance in the context of languages means they were derived from Latin, the language of Rome.

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