Gender-neutrality in Languages With Grammatical Gender/romance Languages

Famous quotes containing the words languages, grammatical, gender and/or romance:

    It is time for dead languages to be quiet.
    Natalie Clifford Barney (1876–1972)

    As a particularly dramatic gesture, he throws wide his arms and whacks the side of the barn with the heavy cane he uses to stab at contesting bidders. With more vehemence than grammatical elegance, he calls upon the great god Caveat Emptor to witness with what niggardly stinginess these flinty sons of Scotland make cautious offers for what is beyond any question the finest animal ever beheld.
    —Administration in the State of Arka, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)

    But there, where I have garnered up my heart,
    Where either I must live or bear no life;
    The fountain from the which my current runs
    Or else dries up: to be discarded thence,
    Or keep it as a cistern for foul toads
    To knot and gender in!
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    Harvey: Oh, you kids these days, I’m telling you. You think the only relationship a man and a woman can have is a romantic one.
    Gil: That sure is what we think. You got something better?
    Harvey: Oh, romance is very nice. A good thing for youngsters like you, but Helene and I have found something we think is more appropriate to our stage of life—companionship.
    Gil: Companionship? I’ve got a flea-bitten old hound at home who’ll give me that.
    Tom Waldman (d. 1985)