I am having a problem! In the English language we have 'human being', 'man', and 'woman'. Throughout most of its history we have used the word 'man' to mean both 'human being' and 'adult male', but times are changing and we are starting to become more politically correct in our distinction (i.e. chairman to chairperson, postman to mail carrier). I am curious of two things

1) What are the words for 'human being', 'male or man', and 'female or woman' in your language (or for people like Cloudy who speak a second language what is it in the second or third language you speak)?
2) Do you use the masculine (i.e. man) as we do. Both as a gender neutral term and for only men? If you do, is it becoming a topic of debate and change in your country/language?

Thank you for your help!

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It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear ignorant,
than open it and remove all doubt!

Well I know in French, if you are talking about a group of 1 man and 10 women you would use the masculine forms of words when describing them. (for non French speakers nouns inc people are either masculine or feminine and cause agrement in adjectives and verb endings). Moiraine will be able to explain this better.

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Holy Avenger of the OHF and part time Pinguindiebjäger

In french we do. In the same words or expressions than english.

As Sir Tainly said, in French, the word meaning 'man' is the same as the word meaning 'human being'. This is not really a subject of debate - what is more so is the name of some professions, that have only male forms (for example, a woman would be 'le Président', but not 'la Présidente' !).

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The world is my oyster !
And now I have the knives to open it ...

[This message has been edited by Moiraine (edited 05-09-2001).]

Just bumping so those of you that don't read any thread that you need an IQ of 50 or more can read this!

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It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear ignorant,
than open it and remove all doubt!

Yeah, in Hungarian, the word for "adult male" is the same word as for "human being" but there is also another official word for "adult male" which is used more often now. The other word is rather old and not used as often in the past.

Geweldig nu ga ik ook gewoon in het Nederlands schrijven als je een vertaling wil moet je bij melusine zijn maar dat weet je niet want dit kun je niet lezen http://www.tgeweb.com/cgi-bin/ubb/no...les/tongue.gif

hoedan ook "Human Being" is Mens of Menselijk wezen als je het letterlijk vertaalt

"Man" is man dus dat is lekker mannelijk
"woman" is vrouw

masculin is mannelijk en dat word alleen gebruikt bij mannen en ben je er wijzer uit gekomen?
ik betwijvel het tenzeerste

Alright
In German
Human Being = Mensch
Man = Man
Woman = Frau
Masculain= Männlich

not to sure about that


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The Githyanki Necromancer - High Magician of the Holy Flame

BTW while you people are at it could you count till ten in your own country and write it down?
(BTW no english, dutch, german, french, chinese I already know that)

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The Githyanki Necromancer - High Magician of the Holy Flame

Same in Swedish, we are starting with adding -person instead of -man in the end too.

Man kan (Man =man ok, simple?) ie you can, one can

So we also have the man-ish thing here in Sweden.

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WOLF WINS EVERY FIGHT BUT ONE, AND IN THAT ONE, HE DIES

As Rikard correctly points out, in Dutch and German, we have different words for "man" as in mankind and "man" as in masculine human.
Dutch:
'human being' or 'mankind' translates as (de) 'mens'
'man' and 'men' translates as 'man' and 'mannen'

Yes yes, we may be a small country, but we are very emancipated http://www.tgeweb.com/cgi-bin/ubb/no...miles/wink.gif

German:
'(a) human being' = 'ein Mensch', 'mankind' = 'der Mensch' or 'Menschheit'
man/men = der Mann, die Männer

BTW a rough translation of Rikard's ramble:

Great now I'm going to write this in Dutch, if you need a translation, ask Melusine but you don't know that as you can't read this http://www.tgeweb.com/cgi-bin/ubb/no...les/tongue.gif
Anyway human being is 'mens' or 'menselijk wezen' in a more literal translation (note from Mel: which BTW is often not the best way to translate- literally I mean http://www.tgeweb.com/cgi-bin/ubb/no...iles/smile.gif)
man is 'man' so that is easy
woman is 'vrouw'
masculine is 'mannelijk', only used for males (note from Mel: DOH http://www.tgeweb.com/cgi-bin/ubb/no...les/tongue.gif)
and have you been enlightened now? I severely doubt it.

Note from Mel: what cheek, eh! http://www.tgeweb.com/cgi-bin/ubb/no...es/biggrin.gifhttp://www.tgeweb.com/cgi-bin/ubb/no...es/biggrin.gifhttp://www.tgeweb.com/cgi-bin/ubb/no...es/biggrin.gif

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Your voice is ambrosia