Gender Common

Summary

A word is classified as “common gender” if it can refer to either a grammatically-masculine or a grammatically-feminine person/thing.

Article

A word is parsed as “common” (in other systems sometimes “unmarked”), when it has potential to refer to either a masculine or a feminine person or thing. Words classified as “common gender” are usually pronouns or verbs.

Examples

In both Biblical Hebrew and Biblical Aramaic, 1st person personal pronouns are “gender common”.

Example: 1KI 18:22

אֲנִ֞י נֹותַ֧רְתִּי נָבִ֛יא לַיהוָ֖ה

‘ani nowtharti navi layhwah

I I-am-left prophet for-Yahweh

I, I alone, am left as a prophet of Yahweh

In both Biblical Hebrew and Biblical Aramaic, finite verbs in 1st person conjugation are “gender common”.

Example: ISA 2:5

בֵּ֖ית יַעֲקֹ֑ב לְכ֥וּ וְנֵלְכָ֖ה בְּא֥וֹר יְהוָֽה

beth ya’aqov lekhu wenelekhah be’or yehwah

House-of Jacob come and-let-us-walk in-light-of Yahweh.

House of Jacob, come, and let us walk in the light of Yahweh.

In Biblical Hebrew, the plural demonstrative pronoun is “gender common”. .. csv-table:: Example: ISA 28:7

וְגַם־אֵ֨לֶּה֙ בַּיַּ֣יִן שָׁג֔וּ wegam-‘elleh bayyayin shagu And-also_these in-the-wine reel But even these reel with wine