ABSTRACT
In European languages with grammatical gender, it is not uncommon for synonyms or near synonyms to be assigned to different gender classes, e.g. German die Frau 'the woman' (feminine) but das Weib 'the woman' (neuter). This situation is almost never found in Passamaquoddy. In fact the gender of nouns is entirely predictable within certain semantically defined domains.3 One semantically based principle assigns all nouns which refer to living, self-moving beings of any kind to the animate gender (hence the name of this class): el 'doe' (pl. eliyik), ess 'clam' (pl. essak). Another makes all nouns animate which refer to objects which are conventionally used to hold liquids: emkwan 'spoon' (pl. emkwanak), pohtdy 'bottle' (pl. pohtdyak; from French bouteille ); compare inanimate m{tsbt 'fork' (pl. m{ts6tiyil), pdksis 'box,' (pl. pdks{sal; from English box). Nouns which refer to playing cards are also animate: talepsis 'club' (pl. ta/eps{sak; from French trefie), psohon 'heart' (pl. psohonak); compare inanimate psohon 'heart (organ)' (pl. psohonal). Other rules of this type undoubtedly exist (mostly assigning nouns to the animate gender). One might, in fact, take each noun and its near synonyms to define a semantic field with an associated gender rule.
