Languages with more than one grammatical gender

From Fresh Dictionary

This is NOT (YET) A POLICY, it is a Policy Think-Tank, simply an anchor point for discussions which could develop into a policy. Please see the discussions (if any) on the attached discussion page if you want to discuss or contribute to the development or adoption of this potential policy.

This page contains our policy on the treatment of words from languages with more than one grammatical gender where this fact becomes an issue. This policy mainly affects how translations for nouns and adjectives should be written under the translation section of each Wiktionary entry. The purpose of this policy is to simplify the translations for all Wiktionary entries and to establish a consistency among all entries. Any suggestion for this policy or any opinion should be left on the discussion page.

Note: In this policy, the term second-language lemma refers to the traditional citation form found in the English-to-second-language side of a dictionary. For example, for Latin, the second-language lemma of walk is ambulare, NOT ambulo, which is the lemma found in the Latin-to-English side of the dictionary.

General Policy

• Nouns

• Only the second-language lemma of an English noun shall be listed, which is defined as the masculine singular form. Any other form of the lexeme shall be omitted.
• The gender of this lemma shall be included. For personal nouns, which can change their gender to reflect the sex of the person they represent, only the masculine singular form shall be listed.
• Any irregularites in the declension or any usage notes of a listed noun shall NOT be listed in the translation section of the English-word entry. Rather, they shall be listed under the entry of the foreign word. For example, in the Latin translation section of the English noun field, only ager m shall be listed. Then, under English Wiktionary's entry for ager, the stem change shall be included: ager, agri; m. This keeps the English translation section simple and concise, and since Wiktionary's goal is to include English definitions for all words from other languages, the additional information (in the case, the irregular stem change) can be found in second-language-to-English section of Wiktionary.

• Adjectives

• Only the second-language lemma of an English adjective shall be listed, which is defined as the masculine singular form. Any other form of the lexeme shall be omitted.
• The gender of this lemma shall NOT be listed, since an adjective does not have a set gender but rather a changeable gender to reflect the gender of the noun it modifies.
• Any irregularites in the declension or any usage notes of a listed adjective shall NOT be listed in the translation section of the English-word entry. Rather, they shall be listed under the entry of the foreign word. For example, in the Latin translation section of the English adjective bold, defined as "courageous, daring," only audax shall be listed. Then, under English Wiktionary's entry for audax, the stem change shall be included: audax, audacis. This keeps the English translation section simple and concise, and since Wiktionary's goal is to include English definitions for all words from other languages, the additional information (in the case, the irregular stem change) can be found in second-language-to-English section of Wiktionary.