I’m Czech and it’s “ta kočka ♀/ten pes ♂” too. The terms “kocour” and “fena” also exist but exclusively mean tomcat and bitch, never the species. In rare cases, the species name, the male animal and female animal are all different, but the species is still gendered because of grammar:
Many romance languages have both; for instance, in Catalan “gos” / “gossa”, “gat” / “gata”, in Spanish, “perro” / “perra”, “gato” / “gata”, or in French “chien” / “chienne”, “chat” / “chatte”.
In general the default for cats and dogs is the male form, though it can be ambiguous between male and don’t know / don’t care.
For instance if you saw a random unidentified cat you could say you saw “un gat / gato / chat”, and it would be impossible to tell whether you were referring to a male cat or a cat of unknown gender (while if you used the female form it’d be unambiguous).
Romance languages really could use a neutral form, but “gat@”, “gat*”, or “gatx” just don’t work when you try to figure out how to say them out loud, and using the female form for neutral just moves the problem to the other side.
Things that feel bigoted but aren’t 😅
I’m wondering what ratio of “gendered” languages uses the feminine genus for cats as opposed to dogs, as in “die Katze/der Hund”.
Exactly! Is cats are girls and dogs are boys just a Germanic thing, or is it deeper?
I’m Czech and it’s “ta kočka ♀/ten pes ♂” too. The terms “kocour” and “fena” also exist but exclusively mean tomcat and bitch, never the species. In rare cases, the species name, the male animal and female animal are all different, but the species is still gendered because of grammar:
🐎 kůň (♂): hřebec ♂, klisna ♀
🐓 kur (♂): kohout ♂, slepice ♀
🐝 včela (♀): trubec ♂, dělnice ♀
🐖 prase (🇳): vepř ♂, bachyně ♀
Baby animals use the neutrum genus: 🐈 kotě, 🐕 štěně, 🐎 hříbě, 🐤 kuře, 🐖 sele
Many romance languages have both; for instance, in Catalan “gos” / “gossa”, “gat” / “gata”, in Spanish, “perro” / “perra”, “gato” / “gata”, or in French “chien” / “chienne”, “chat” / “chatte”.
See my other comment, the one with the emoji: yes, words like “tomcat” and “bitch” exist, but which is used for the species?
In general the default for cats and dogs is the male form, though it can be ambiguous between male and don’t know / don’t care.
For instance if you saw a random unidentified cat you could say you saw “un gat / gato / chat”, and it would be impossible to tell whether you were referring to a male cat or a cat of unknown gender (while if you used the female form it’d be unambiguous).
Romance languages really could use a neutral form, but “gat@”, “gat*”, or “gatx” just don’t work when you try to figure out how to say them out loud, and using the female form for neutral just moves the problem to the other side.