What is Grammatical Gender?
Halló!
This post will give a brief introduction to grammatical gender in Icelandic.
Grammatical gender refers to the phenomenon in some languages whereby all nouns, even ones with no real-world gender connotation, are assigned to a specific gender for grammatical purposes.
Grammatical gender in English
English does not have grammatical gender, so things are only referred to by their actual gender identities.
When referring to a male animal or a male person, English uses masculine pronouns such as he and him, and when referring to a female animal or person, feminine pronouns such as she and her.
Non-living, inanimate things like cups and bowls, and even the idea of happiness itself (see what I did there?) are referred to with non-gendered pronouns such as it.
Note: Individuals who use they/them or neo-pronouns do not typically refer to themselves with "it".
Grammatical gender in Icelandic
Icelandic employs a distinct grammatical gender system, setting it apart from English.
Within Icelandic, three grammatical genders are recognized: masculine, feminine, and neuter. Each noun, whether it pertains to an object, person, concept, or place, is designated to one of these genders, notwithstanding the fact that the noun itself may lack any gender-related attributes or even embody contrasting gender qualities.
For instance, in Icelandic, the term for horse, hestur, is classified as a masculine noun despite the fact that horses, in reality, can be of any gender. Similarly, the word for city, borg is a feminine noun, even though cities lack living characteristics and intrinsic gender traits. Likewise, the term for child, barn, is categorized as neuter, despite the fact that children, as people, have their own inherent senses of gender identity.
While the aforementioned child may very well use feminine or masculine pronouns to refer to himself or herself when others are when simply referring to him/her as the child, neuter pronouns need to be used. When referring to him/her, more specifically, the pronouns that match his or her real-world gender identities would be used.
Example: Hvar er barnið? Hvar er það? - (Where's the child? Where is it?)
Example: Hvar er Ása? Hvar er hún? - (Where is Ása? Where is she?)
A common misconception
Languages with grammatical gender do not assign items with feminine or girlish attributes automatically as feminine. The same is true with masculine-seeming nouns.
The grammatical gender ascribed to a noun is entirely detached from the actual characteristics of the noun itself. You cannot tell the genre of a noun based on what it represents.
The rationale behind a noun like hestur being masculine is simply a historical linguistic convention; centuries of tradition have cemented this classification. From a learner's standpoint, there is no inherent logic to decipher. When you learn a noun, you should learn what gender it is matter-of-factly.
This phenomenon draws parallels to the way that some English speakers may refer to boats, cars, or other vehicles using feminine pronouns, even though these things clearly lack sentience.
While boats aren't inherently female, this convention persists due to long-standing linguistic habits. Though historical origins may exist for such practices, the majority of people won't know it nor care—boats are referred to as she because that's the convention.
This is my ship. Isn't she pretty?
Why is grammatical gender important?
While the assignment of gender to a noun is arbitrary, it carries significant linguistic implications. One of the most visible areas where grammatical gender impacts a language is the usage of pronouns.
In English, it would be very strange to refer to inanimate objects such as a computer mouse or a table with the pronouns he or she; English mandates the neutral pronoun it for non-living entities. However, in Icelandic, the pronoun you use has to match the noun's gender.
As previously mentioned, the noun "Barn" requires neuter pronouns, the noun "Hestur" necessitates masculine pronouns, and the noun "Borg" demands feminine pronouns. This distinction is highlighted in the examples below, where the pronouns are altered in the second sentence of each instance to correspond with the gender of the noun.
Note: "Hann" best translates to "He," "Hún" best translates to "She," and "Það" best translates to "It."
Example 1: Þetta er barn. Það er… (This is a child. It is…)
Example 2: Þetta er hestur. Hann er… (This is a horse. He is…)
Example 3: Þetta er borg. Hún er… (This is a city. She is…)
Þetta er hundur. Hann er...
Always be aware of gender when selecting pronouns in Icelandic. While translating a sentence like "It is big" into Icelandic, you might assume that using the pronoun það is suitable, solely due to the assumption that það translates to it. However, you need to consider what the pronoun it represents in your sentence. If it pertains to an entity characterized by feminine grammatical gender, such as borg then hún should be employed instead of það.
Occasions may arise where an object under discussion, such as a haddock fish on the table, could feasibly be referred to using two genders. If you wish to discuss it as fiskur (fish), a masculine noun, using masculine pronouns is appropriate. Conversely, if you opt to discuss it as ýsa (haddock), a feminine noun, using feminine pronouns is fitting. Just be sure that what is being referred to is clear to both parties based on the context, usually done so by using the noun fiskur or ýsa before using a pronoun.
Note: Grammatical gender doesn't maintain consistency across languages. For example, a masculine word in Spanish isn't necessarily going to be masculine in Icelandic.