this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2026
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[–] novibe@lemmy.ml 3 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

Of course. But I don’t think that’s the “purpose” of it. It’s good to remember that languages don’t have anything purposeful about them at all. Any characteristic in a language has use, but no purpose.

Like living beings languages evolve, and mutate, and useful traits stay behind and spread and less useful ones are forgotten.

Gender might sometimes be useful in those situations, but I would be skeptical it’s the main reason it appeared and kept being used.