Spanish speaking friends: Is there any documentation on how it was decided whether various objects were "male" or "female"? Or do various nouns just have particular genders for no specific reason beyond someone arbitrarily decided it at some point in the past?
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This actually isn't even specific to Spanish, any other romantic language speaking friends feel free to chime in as well
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Replying to @sgrif
I'm pretty sure something like this isn't *decided* per se. People use different genders for words based on region, etc. Eventually one becomes the standard. In Germany people have been arguing over the gender of Nutella for quite a while
(It's das Nutella btw, not die
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Replying to @kiliankoe
Wait I thought German was neuter for inanimate objects? I though that's where English got it from o_O
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Replying to @sgrif
Definitely not that clear, unfortunately. It's die Zahnpasta (toothpaste), but das Mädchen (girl) for example
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This makes me feel very differently about das boot
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