The Neuter as a Religious Symbol

J. W. Richter

Fig. 1: Hermes of Roquepertuse There is some rumor in the Dutch linguistic circuits, which are troubled by the idea that the neuter article may be replaced by a common article for all genders. In English the articles the and a/an, which in Anglian dialects was the number 'one' (compare 'on', in Saxon dialects) and survived into Modern Scots as the number 'ane'. Languages may have various forms of each article, according to grammatical attributes such as gender, number, or case, or according to adjacent sounds. In German the article has been defined as a fully gender-specific word: der, die, das (for male, female, neuter) whereas the Dutch use two articles de and het (for male/female and neuter). In English, which has been synthesized from several other languages such as German, Dutch and French the article has been reduced to a universal, gender-unspecific article the. Now the Dutch language seems to be lead to a universal, gender-unspecific article de by simply eliminating the neuter article het.

The Neuter as a Religious Symbol

To understand the background for the usage of neuter words alongside of the male and female genders we will have to consider the religious ideas, which have been lost for centuries by now. In modern Dutch and German it is well known that all diminutive words have to be considered as neuter words, even if they clearly signify male or female persons. The child (Dutch: het kind, German: das Kind) and the girl (Dutch: het meisje, German: das Mdchen) for instance are neuter words. These neuters have been defined for religious reasons in a prehistoric society which merely considered male and female adults as images of the divine Being. Only the male & female adults and God were able to generate new life. Procreation was the only way to reach for eternity, in which the ancestors survived in their offspring.

Children however were unable to contribute to new life and had to be considered as neuter. They had to grow up and reach the matrimonial phase to contribute to procreation. As a linguistic element gender has been considered as a religious element, which in an initiation process symbolized the transition from a child to man. As an image of God Man of course had to represent a marital couple combining both the male and female elements in a joined pair. In the early linguistic philosophy the young children (boy and girl) used to be considered as non gender-specific, neuter objects. This concept however has been offended in several ways. One of the problems are caused by the little babies, which probably are the most genderless of all human beings.

Babies1
In German the baby is a neuter word, which basically is to be addressed as a neuter: Unser Baby ist wunderbar. Es hat die ganze Nacht geschlafen! (Translation: Our baby is sweet. It has been sleeping all night.)

In Dutch the baby is a male word for a small child, but the baby may never be addressed as a neuter, because the word baby is not a diminutive form. He may be addressed as a female person however, e.g. if a name such as Mathilde has been specified. Instead the word baby'tje is a diminutive form of baby and must be addressed as a neuter word: Het kindje is braaf geweest: het heeft de hele nacht geslapen. (Translation: The child has been sweet. It did sleep all night.) De baby is lief geweest. Hij heeft de hele nacht geslapen. (Translation: The baby has been sweet. He did sleep all night.) Onze baby Mathilde is lief geweest. Zij heeft de hele nacht geslapen. (Translation: Our baby Mathilda has been sweet. She has slept all night.) Het baby'tje is lief geweest. Het heeft de hele nacht geslapen. (Translation: The little baby has been sweet. It has been sleeping all night.)

Strange as it may seem there is no neuter version for small twins. In fact there is no diminutive for twins. In Dutch the twins cannot be defined as neuters, even if they are babies. Human adults however may be diminutive by using mannetje (little man) and vrouwtje (little woman) and (for the general use of neuters for diminutives) must always be addressed as neuters.

The Girl with the Red Hair

In the movie The Girl with the Red Hair (Dutch: Het meisje met het rode haar) (1981) the girl as a full-grown, 20 years old, adult woman and does not invite anyone to consider her as a neuter object. In fact we should not use the neuter article for female adults at all. After all the neuter article het has to be restricted to children, whereas women need to be described by the adult article de. The very word het meisje is a diminutive for the female word de meid ( the maid). As soon as the gender has been defined we will also have to apply the corresponding pronouns. Even for the diminutive form meisje we will have to use a female pronoun and we will automatically apply she and her for the adult woman in the movie The Girl with the Red Hair.
1 Nederlands Voor Gevorderden

Of course we will use the neuter for all non gender-specific children, but there are a great number of gender-specific cases, which invite us to consider the appropriate article. Let us investigate some examples to identify the various cases of linguistic constructs and start with a simple sentence: The little child tiptoed into the garden and tilted its head towards the sky. Obviously this neuter word its defines the child as genderless. We would probably expect this child to be around three years old, but we are unaware of its gender. The following utterances both reveal the child as a little girl. The little girl tiptoed into the garden and tilted its head towards the sky. The use of the genderless word its defines the girl as a genderless child. The gender-specific attributes are increased by the following constructs: The little child tiptoed into the garden and tilted her head towards the sky. The little girl tiptoed into the garden and tilted her head towards the sky.

Up to some limits these simple examples may be applied in Dutch and German as well. However the central law, which prescribes the neuter for diminutives, may never be trespassed. No native Dutch speaker would ever consider to say De meisje, translated to the non-neuter version of the girl. In Dutch however foreigners are unaware of these rules for the neuter's use in diminutives, leading to the erroneous phrase De meisje, e.g. in the YouTube clip Waar Is De Meisje (translated: Where is the Girl?).

The Man and the Wife

Additional exceptions are aggravating the linguistic problems for foreigners. Some adults (man and wife, respectively woman) may also be defined as neuter objects. In Dutch language Het mens, which is the neuter version of the man, is a denigrating description, which seems to eliminate the gender attribute and to have lost the divine nimbus. Although the expression may be used for both genders it usually describes a female person. In German language Bertolt Brecht repeatedly uses das Mensch, which is the neuter version of the man for a bad woman, a bitch, in a similar way 2. In the Threepenny-opera Brecht uses the expression in the following dialogue: Mac: Wisst ihr denn berhaupt was das ist: ein Mensch?3 Walter: Der Mensch oder das Mensch?4 Polly: Pfui, Herr Walter.5 The German word Das Weib (the woman or the wife) and the equivalent Dutch word het wijf both are neuter words for the woman. In Dutch the expression is a denigrating expression, which may have been based on the medieval idea that Eve and in general women have been considered as evil for their role in the biblical Creation legend. Even today the Church forbids women any access to the altar. Probably the neuter versions of the Dutch words mens (man6) and wijf (woman7) have been considered denigrating for their evil reputation as defined in the Bible...
2 3 4 5 6 7 Brecht heute / Brecht today Jahrbuch der internationalen Brecht Gesellschaft (1971), pag. 104. Mac: Do you know at all what this is: a man? Walter: Man (male or female) or the man (neuter)? Polly: Pfui, Mr. Walter. male or female In a denigrating sense

The girl lost her bicycle8.

In Dutch some linguistic constructs may allow the gender to creep into neuter concepts. As a diminutive the word meisje (girl) is always a neuter word at any age, even up to 55 years. Still the Dutch may say the girl lost her bicycle instead of the girl lost its bicycle. Some of the neuter versions however seem to be disappearing. Especially the web-based languages may be searched for bad constructs, as it has been listed in the web-column Ook het onzijdig die verdwijnt: het prijskaartje die eraan hangt! (translation: the price tag, who ...) het eerste bedrijf die dit doel bereikt heeft (translation: the first company, who ...) een bedrijf die (74.500 hits!) (translation: a company, who ...) het boek, die nog briljanter is dan de film. (translation: the book, who even is more brilliant than the movie) het computerprogramma die dat doet. (translation: the software, who is performing this)

Frequent samples are also de meisje, which has been identified as a top-scorer. The column refers to

foreigners who misunderstood some basic Dutch linguistic principles, especially the use of the neuter words.

The future of the neuter in Dutch language

The column Ook het onzijdig die verdwijnt claims that Dutch will be following the basic English concept of a singular gender in the article definition (the). These transitions do not imitate English but have been triggered by internal forces, which cannot be corrected and will have to be accepted. And yes, for foreigners this language seems to provide us with some mysterious concepts. The Dutch people will have to decide whether they must respect their language as a cultural monument or as a communication tool, which may be adapted ad lib for simplicity. If we decide to conserve the cultural monument we must be careful to conserve some basic gender concepts. The linguistic gender principles have been introduced in a prehistoric era in which the androgynous character of the first man generally had been accepted as it has been documented in Plato's Symposium. The duality of the first androgynous creature however largely has been eliminated by the medieval Church. Only a few remains have been preserved in some archaic languages. It might be a good idea to investigate and explain the backgrounds of the linguistic gender concepts before the last neuter words have been eliminated in Dutch and German, which would definitely simplify language by transforming language into simple versions such as simple English.

8 Ook het onzijdig die verdwijnt

The divine concepts

Studying the old religious concepts will help us to understand the neuter versions of words as young versions, too young to perform procreation. The male and female versions of words are the mature versions, ready for their matrimonial role in procreation. The study of gender will also reveal the serious problem in defining a gender for the divine Being. Of course the neuter could not be applied for its youth and inability to perform procreation, which is needed to deliver an adult image of God. The divine Being had to be an adult, which cannot be a neuter concept. Man as an image of the divine Being had to be an adult as well and it should be defined with the same gender as the divine Being. We know the early societies chose a male concept for the divine Being, although it is well known we equally need both male and female genders to perform procreation. Theoretically we would need a fourth gender to meet the requirements of combining the male and female concepts (God and the first man). This however has not been found in modern languages. Instead a number of other representations reveal dual and/or androgynous symbolism, which may be listed in an overview. These representations may be graphical, color or other symbols. All these concepts confirm the idea of basic, androgynous concepts in original religions, which on all fields aimed to support fertility and procreation. Fertility had to be supported in words, in names, in languages, in pronouns, in color symbolism. One of these elements has been the gender symbolism in our languages, which largely has been lost in English language.

The divine names, IHVH, the Creation Legend and the Colors
Duality-relevant concepts in the Bible are the divine name IHVH, the creation legend and the color codes for purple, red and blue in the Book Exodus respectively Chronicles9. Especially the Christianized Saxon leader Widukind managed to save the coloring PIE-code in his burial garments, colored purple, red & blue, which partly has been copied as a burial tradition by the Plantagenets and the duke Gerard III of Guelders10. Numerous color samples of red & blue have been identified as relations to ancient predecessor symbols, which escaped the Christian inquisitions because both the Indo-European and the biblical symbolism shared the same purple, red & blue combinations to symbolize the androgynous fundamental principle. At the elementary school in Eindhoven in 1954 a Catholic teacher ordered the children to draw male persons (Jesus, Adam & God) in red colours and female persons (Eve and the virgin Mary) in blue, which obviously corresponds to the most popular color combinations (red, white and blue) in flags11.

9 The Hermetic Codex 10 1185-1229 11 Godsdienstles 1954-1955.

Bi-faced and/or androgynous sculptures

Many bi-faced and/or androgynous sculptures12 have been identified13 to represent androgynous deities, such as Adam14, Tammuz, Enki and Ninurta15, Bel and Belit16. Itar/Atart 17, Atar18, the duplex Amathusia respectively the bearded Aphrodite of Amathus19, Kronos20. the ancient androgynous skygod Dyaus and the primeval man Purusha 21, Platos first man22. The Germanic figures of Odin, Loki, Tuisco and Nerthus, the Chinese Supreme Divinity23, Quetzalcoatl24, IU-piter 25 and the Zoroastric's main Deity Zurvan.

Fig. 2: Hermes of Roquepertuse

12 See examples in: The Sky-God Dyaeus (05 / 15 / 2009) and The Hermetic Codex 13 Listed by Mircea Eliade Patterns in Comparative Religion, by Mircea Eliade, Rosemary Sheed, John C. Holt, 1958 and by Rens van der Sluijs. 14 Bereshit Rabbah I. 1, fol. 6, col. 2:Patterns in Comparative Religion : 423 15 D. N. Talbott, The Saturn myth; a reinterpretation of rites and symbols illuminating some of the dark corners of primordial society, 1980: 88 16 Mircea Eliade - Patterns in Comparative Religion : 422 17 J. Leclant: Asurt Cheval, d'aprs les Reprsentations Egyptiennes, Syrie, 37 (1960): 7, cited in Z. Rix, The androgenous comet, SIS Review, I. 5 (1977): 17-19) 18 U. Oldenburg, Above the stars of El: El in ancient South Arabic religion, Zeitschrift fr alt-testamentliche Wissenschaft, 82 (1970): 199f., cited in E. Cochrane, Mars Gods of the New World, Aeon IV. 1 (1995): 60 19 Catullus 68. 51 20 Great Magical Papyrus of Paris, K. Preisendanz, Papyri Graecae Magicae; Die Griechischen Zauberpapyri, 1928, I: 64, cited in D. Cardona, Child of Saturn (part III), Kronos VII. 3 (1982): 3-14) 21 Rig-Veda X. 90; Patterns in Comparative Religion : 421 22 Patterns in Comparative Religion : 1958: 423 23 Patterns in Comparative Religion: 422 24 D. N. Talbott, The Saturn myth; a reinterpretation of rites and symbols illuminating some of the dark corners of primordial society, 1980: 88 25 St. Augustine in Twenty-two books to Theocracy

Gender symbolism
Some of the gender symbolism has been preserved in German and partly in modern Dutch. Both languages however are more complicated than simple English and prone to loose their most important symbolic contents, which is encoded in the religious gender elements. Of course modern religion considers the symbolism as pagan. Pagan religion however has delivered an elementary contribution to philosophy, language, artwork and other social links. If there is no real interest in these ancient concepts we may as well switch over to a general genderless linguistic concept, which ultimately would even manage to even simplify the easiest of all European languages (English). The German language probably may be powerful enough to preserve gender symbolism for some time. The Dutch language, which already list the male/female distinction, probably lost too much symbolism to preserve the remaining rest of the religious basis. In fact modern languages do not need gender symbolism. It may be eliminated to simplify the learning and integrating process. The gender symbols are useless in a world, in which equality has been declared by laws, in which religion, fertility and procreation are minor side-effects of modern civilization. These are some of the aspects of simplifying the neuter concept in our languages. English already has proven how most of the gender symbols may easily be eliminated without any losses. It would be worth investigating what happens if gender symbolism would be eliminated completely.