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The Indo-European feminine declension looks like the neuter plural. The usual explanation seems to be that feminine evolved out of an earlier inanimate collective but the semantics doesn't seem to be well understood.

I've also been told that Semitic languages treat non-human plurals as being grammatically feminine.

Are these phenomena related? If not, what is the semantic motivation that relates feminine and inanimate plural?

cyco130
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  • Have a look at the discussion here: https://linguistics.stackexchange.com/questions/6995/is-feminine-ending-in-a-a-native-feature-of-semitic-languages?rq=1 – fdb Nov 12 '17 at 12:50
  • In Romanian, neuter nouns behave as masculines in the singular, and as feminines in the plural. – Lucian Jan 11 '18 at 12:31

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