Hand-book of Volapük/9

= GENDERS =

Om, he (it); of, she ; os, it; ji, female.

All nouns are considered as "masculin" unless expressly denoting females. What we call the neuter gender of nouns does not exist in Volap&uuml;k. Thus of is used of female persons or animals; om is used---1st, of males; 2nd, of living beings whose sex is disregarded; 3rd, of lifeless or sexless things (it); os is it, speaking abstractly, where no noun is referred to, as,

It is fair weather. Will you be faithful ? I swear it.

Ji- is a prefix (English, she) used to make nouns feminin, when the sex is to be specially pointed out.

A few words, easily recognised. are always feminin, as mot ( = jifat), vom ( = jiman), l&auml;d ( = jis&ouml;l), kun ( = jixol).

Other words, if relating to men, are masculin without any prefix; if relating to animals, the unprefixed word is common (indifferent) gender, the name or the male animal has the preflx om-, and the name of the female the prefix ji-.

Jeval, horse; omjeval, stallion; jijeval, mare.