"Three Gracies", "Both pilots" ...

As indicators of the genus and gender
go to the backyard of the tongue

The pilot of the Boeing-737 aircraft Maria Trunina torn over her colleagues on Facebook: "Boys, no offense, but your time seems to have expired." And she attached the scan of the instructions: "Recalculation of the given height in meters ... is performed by both pilots ."

In general, mistakes are almost always a marker of changes in the language, that is, the key to its past and possible future. If the student, having galloped, writes instead of a global incorrectly pale , then different sounds, for which different letters E and О (yat) were once specially invented, ceased to vary. After a while, changes in sounds can be reflected in official spelling. So, the letter, as you know, was eventually removed from the alphabet.

Sometimes changes in sounds lead to the coincidence of grammatical forms. For example, the end of the adjective in phrases of the type of round lake and round puddle now do not differ by ear. The fact is that in an unstressed position, vowels in the Russian language are pronounced very weakened, unclear, briefly, and some of them completely coincide. But this purely sound situation affects the grammar: it turns out that not just sounds, but the female and the average kind of adjectives do not differ. We can say that centuries ago, when the pronunciation of unstressed became just that, in the language there was a “smaller kind”.

But it happens that the matter is not in phonetic changes. As in a number of other cases, there, then here and here, the strict distinction between three grammatical clans. For example, the adjectives of the male and feminine in the plural coincided: round (lakes, puddles, eyes). The plural of the third -person of the male, female and middle family coincided in the plural: he, it, it is. It’s just that some generic forms have ceased to be used, and the form of the plural of adjectives on -th , strengthened instead of three initially different forms, goes back to the female family. And, of course, these changes at first were also just grammatical errors.

Meanwhile, if some grammatical information for one reason or another disappears and is not compensated by the language in other ways, then it was excessive in this place (it looks like neutral mutations in biology that do not affect adaptability).

And from a grammatical kind to be a stone's throw to the designation of the floor, because in nouns denoting people, the clan often coincides with the floor of the object. Often, but far from always.

It is difficult not to mention the “hype” theme of the designation of women with words without “female suffixes” : doctor, dean, lawyer. Also, by the way, innovation. His first sprouts appeared, it seemed, at the end of the 18th century, when Princess Dashkova, for example, is called “president”, “gentleman” and even “member”. In the XX century, this became an obvious powerful trend, and it is more powerful and powerful. So Maria Trunina herself, with whom the topic of symptomatic mistakes began, is a pilot. And recently, even “Russian citizen Maria N.” slipped in the media. And, perhaps, it was not only about the historically established lesser prestige of formations with the suffixes expressing the female sex (the highest titles also had such suffixes - the empress, the princess , etc.), and the fact that information about the field in a number of cases turned out to be excessive. For example, duplicating the same information transmitted by the name.

As for both - both , of course, in the nominative case of the female and male forms of this numeral, they have not yet been confused, but in indirect cases the difference by only one sound hidden in the word ( oh of them - about them - about them ) is obviously becoming less necessary for us. By the way, in a particular case, the feminine form turned out to be more universal ...

In general, a violation of the rules for the use of collective numerals (and both are a collective numeral) is quite typical. According to the rules, collective numerals of two, three, four , etc. can only refer to words denoting people or cubs of animals, but not female faces. Three gymnasts can. Three kittens - you can. Three gymnasts are a mistake. But why a mistake? Why such discrimination? It is difficult for a modern person to understand this and keep in memory. Therefore, headers of the type of " three girls of easy behavior are accused of killing a colleague." However, even the Soviet poet Leonid Martynov in verses arose "nine muses and three grace ...". Most likely, this rule will die.

... Of course, in all the mentioned errors and changes it is possible and necessary to see another trend - the growth of the so -called analytism of the Russian language, when the words have fewer different forms. In the end, and just the cases of numerals suffer, without any generic and sexual background. But this does not contradict the facts: the role of the grammatical category of the genus in the Russian language is reduced, so far, it is still very insignificant, and the volume of language information transmitted in Russian about the field of people, in turn, is reduced. Of course, the “time of the boys” did not expire, but both the distinction-both than the features does not joke, maybe someday, the language backyards will go, where numerous grammatical forms that disappeared from the tongue are safely resting.

Irina Fufaeva,
scientific. sore. Laboratory of sociolinguistics of the RSUSU