Why is a ship a she?
In many languages across the world, all nouns are classed as either male or female, or sometimes neuter. The English language, however, only signals gender in its pronouns - he, she, it or they. For inanimate objects, gender just crops up in occasional examples like ships or countries, which, for some reason, are deemed female. \n \nThis lack of gender in English intrigued CrowdScience listener Stuart, since the other languages he knows all highlight whether something is male or female. Did English ever have gender, and if so, where did it go? Presenter Anand Jagatia dives into some Old English texts to uncover the idiosyncrasies of its masculine and feminine nouns, and learns why these gradually fell out of use.\n \nBut why do other languages assign gender to nouns \u2013 male, female, and sometimes many more categories too? And does this affect the way we think?
Contributors:\nAndrew Dunning, Curator of Medieval Manuscripts, Bodleian Library, Oxford University\nRachel Burns, Departmental Lecturer in Old English, Oxford University\nSuzanne Romaine, Professor of Linguistics, Hawaii\nIda Hadjivayanis, Senior Lecturer in Swahili, SOAS University\nAngeliki Alvanoudi, Sociolinguist, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki\nAmy Bahulekar, Writer, Mumbai
Presenter: Anand Jagatia\nProducer: Eloise Stevens\nEditor: Cathy Edwards\nProduction Coordinator: Ishmael Soriano