Chimpanzee: noun gender

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:47

Chimpanzee is one of the great apes. Some scientists even claim that chimpanzees are closest to humans in their anatomy and physiology.

Interesting animal facts

Chimpanzees are highly intelligent and show good learning ability. These are socialized animals, able to imitate the higher status members of the pack. Aggressive and capable of killing on the basis of competition. The growth of males is up to 170 cm, weight is up to 70 kg. Almost the size of a human! But usually they give the impression of being smaller in size, because they move based on all 4 limbs. Females are usually smaller. The brain of monkeys is only 25-30% of the human.

These animals, like other types of monkeys, cause some ridicule and are not liked by everyone. They seem to be a parody of humans. Some are touched by their funny antics, but at the same time, those who are familiar with their intellect respect them as if they were younger brothers.

These monkeys are the favorite experimental subjects of scientists, and all thanks to the ingenuity of these primates. Chimpanzees are able to use tools, unlike all other animals. For example, they make a stick for digging up a termite mound by removing leaves from branches, and even make a sponge from chewedleaves to extract water from the hollow of a tree.

"Chimpanzee" is an indeclinable noun

How to identify the genus of chimpanzee? For this, the peculiarity of these monkeys as a biological species is not at all important, because the genus, unlike sex, is a linguistic category. Therefore, the subject of our analysis will be the very word "chimpanzee", the genus of which must be determined. And this noun is interesting because it is indeclinable. Among the names of animals there are other indeclinable nouns. Usually such words are borrowed and have an ending that is not typical for Russian nouns. After all, when a noun ends in the usual way for us - in a consonant or in a / z - it changes according to the type of the second or first declension: koala - koalas, cheetah - cheetah. But the endings -o and -e are also characteristic of Russian nouns! Yes, but only for the middle gender. And the neuter gender is uncharacteristic of animate nouns, which include animals, with the exception of the word "animal" itself. But it is a generalizing word and carries a shade of abstraction. But for specific names of animals, the middle gender will not work in any way, so words like "chimpanzee" are indeclinable. Let's now determine the gender of the noun chimpanzee.

Genus of indeclinable words

This is despite the fact that these words are also borrowed. Why are there so many words of foreign origin among the names of animals? There is logic here. We are unlikely to meet animals with such names in their native forests. Bear, wolf, fox - the words are native Russian. But for the names of exotic animals living in other parts of the globe, there were no names of their own. That is why the zoo of indeclinable nouns is full of tropical animals and birds: kangaroo, zebu, cockatoo, emu, kiwi, flamingo.

How to determine the genus of chimpanzee if the word is not declined? There is a general rule for all indeclinable animal names. Depending on the sex of the animal, they can be either masculine or feminine. But if the gender is unknown, then the base will be the masculine chimpanzee. For example, "funny chimpanzee"; "the chimpanzee fed her babies."

Exceptions are tsetse and iwashi - they are feminine, apparently, correlating with the usual clarifications: tsetse fly and ivasi herring. What about other immutable nouns?

About other invariable words

It's much easier with inanimate nouns. All of them belong to the middle gender: a fashionable coat, a strict jury. But with the word "coffee" historically, it was assigned to the masculine gender. All this is because in the 19th century it was called "coffee". Recently, both masculine and neuter genders in the name of this drink have been recognized as acceptable.

If the indeclinable word refers to a person, then his gender will be determined by gender: a bold hidalgo, a sophisticated lady. Job titles are usually masculine: imposing impresario, military attaché.

Origin of the word "chimpanzee"

Where did this monkey name come from in Russian? Presumably from German or French - in them it sounds the same and differs only in spelling. In French, as the researchers suggest, the word came from one of the languages of Africa, where it meant "monkey". The genus of chimpanzee in French is also masculine, but with the addition of femelle (“female”) it becomes feminine.