Sattsaev, Elbrus B. , Abdollahi, Mousa
Izvestia SOIGSI. 2022. IIS 46 (85).

Abstract:
Gender is a grammatical category; it is characteristic of different parts of speech and consists
of the distribution of words or forms into two or three classes, which are called male, female and
middle. The semantics of the generic classification is vague and unclear, only a part of nouns reflects
real gender differences. The presence of gender is a characteristic feature of the grammar of many
languages, including Indo-European. However, the degree of preservation of the gender in different
European languages is different. This is largely due to the stability of synthetism in the system of word
formation. The ancient Indo-European languages (Sanskrit, Avestan, Ancient Greek, Latin etc.) show
a three-tier system. However, in the more ancient Hittite language compared to them, we observe
only two genders – common (animate) and middle. The Hittite language is the first in the history
of Indo-European languages with written fixation. In modern Indo-European languages there are
both three-gender and two-gender, which include some Iranian languages. The gender system is also
characteristic of Semitic languages. The genus is absent in Turkic, Finno-Ugric, Mongolian, Nakh-
Dagestan, Kartvelian and other languages. Caucasian languages use noun classes instead of gender,
which tend to be richer than gender distinctions. In this case, the genus can exist as an autonomous
subsystem within one of the named classes. The number of classes reaches forty. Origin of the classes,
as well as of the genus, is unclear. In most modern Iranian languages gender as a grammatical
category has been lost. In ancient Iranian languages, there were three genders – masculine, feminine
and neutral. In the Middle Iranian language epoch in part of the Iranian languages the gender
category disappeared. In Middle Persian and Parthian languages the gender system is not traced.
As for the Eastern Iranian languages, the gender category is well preserved there. These are Sogdian,
Khotanosak and Khorezmian. The written material of the Alanian and Bactrian languages cannot
unequivocally answer, whether a genus existed in them or not. In new Iranian languages the
gender system also was not preserved in the same way. In many of them the gender category has
disappeared. The gender system is best preserved in Kurdish (Kurmanji), Shughni and especially in
Afghan (Pashto) languages. There is no category of gender in Ossetian language. However, there are
some relics in terms of onomastics, which indicates the presence of a gender in Scythian language.

Keywords: Scythian language, Ossetian language, Indo-European languages, Sanskrit, Bactrian language, Afghan (Pashto) language, Semitic languages, semantics, Middle Persian and Parthian languages

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