Re: (Re): Funny lokking Truths...

Prabhakar Vissavajjhala (vissa@cortex.neuro.mssm.edu)
Wed, 23 Jul 1997 11:07:29 -0500 

Sri  SreekAnt banDi wrote on  Fri., July 18, 1997

 >>Prabhakar Vissavajjhala (vissa@cortex.neuro.mssm.edu) wrote:
 >long message cut..
  >> Of course,  both for he/she, English gives the same verb.  For eg., 'He
 >> does/did'  and 'She does/did'.  So, the English can claim they don't show
 >> 'sex discrimination' with reference to the usage of verb, which 'telugu and
 >> hindi' does.  For eg., 'Ame  cEsindi'.  'ataDu  cESADu' in 'telugu' and
 >> '...kartA  hein,  '...kartee   hein' in  'hindi'.  Being 'telugus', should
 >> we say, 'We are more precise, rather than sex discriminatory?'

 >Sure! Some more examples in telugu:

 >Ame vacchinadi
 >kukka vacchinadi

 >Very funny of being precise and non-discriminatory !

 >-srikanth
_________________________________________________________________

At the first place, I am back at work today only. So, sorry for the delayed
reply.

Thanks for the attention. Indeed, I expected this. That is the reason a
question mark is put at the end. Truly, there are many more things funny in
there (if one doesn't like that word, they may consider 'strange'), though
the' precision' is also very much a valid point.

There can be no sex-discrimination in 'telugu' also,  by means of saying

       'ataDu/Ame/ kukka  vaccenu  or  vaccunu'.

However, not all the times like viz.,

      >Ame vacchinadi
      >kukka vacchinadi
       ataDu  vaccinADu.

In this,  'Ame'  stree  lingamu.  If we take  'ataDu',  it is  'puMlingamu.

But what is the 'gender' of 'kukka'  in 'telugu' on this occasion (not in
English)?
Even if we consider,  'maga'  or  'ADa'  as a prefix to 'kukka',  even then
it reads only

    'maga  kukka'/  'ADa  kukka'  vaccinadi.

Indeed, this strange situation doesn't end with the noun forms requiring
prefix to denote the sex/gender.  For eg.   'simhamu'   is  'puMlingamu'
and the female  form is  'simhika'.  Even, when we use these precise froms;
people only say

      'simhamu'/  'simhika'/ Ame    vaccinadi
      ataDu  vaccinADu.

Nobody dares say,  'simhamu'  vaccinADu;  though that is a male form.
People do laugh at us.

Much more strange are the following ones.

         stree  lingamu   -   puMlingamu

              kOkila          -   kOkilamu
            mayUri          -   mayUramu

Inspite of the  sex/gender differentiating noun forms do exist,  we only
hear people say,

       'kOkila'  /  Ame     pADinadi
       'mayUri'  /  Ame   nATya  mADinadi.
       ataDu    pADinADu/  nATya  mADinADu.

The really strange or funny things here are,  only the male  versions of
those birds perform those respective actions (singing and dancing)  but not
the female forms.  So,  people tend to go even *naturally* wrong on those
occasions. So, strictly speaking, the word 'nATya  mayUri'  is wrong, but
it should be 'nATya  mayUramu'. However, we do know well which is more
popular in usage. Some other male forms used with female form of verbs are
'eddu',  'vRshabhamu' etc.

(Perhaps, there must have been some conventions  or grammar rules to say so.)

However, **apparently**,  telugu language shows 'precision' for humans
without fail regarding this issue.  This gets hightened, when we come
across female-looking male  names (for eg., Late Prof.  Sree' nAyuDamma'),
or male-looking female names (for eg., 'simhAdri' or in slang  'cimmAdri'),
or the names that are used for both sexes (for eg.,  'ratnam', ' maNi',
'ramaNa',  'kRshNa',  'aravinda').  On these occasions, apart from the
pronouns, the verbal form does precisely indicate the 'gender' of the noun
in that context.

By the way,  guess the 'gender' of  a proper (telugu) name  'paiDitalli'.

With regards,
Prabhakar Vissavajjhala