According to Alessio Stalla<alessiostalla@gmail.com>:
Italian has masculine/feminine gender distinctions for nouns and
adjectives, too.
Now Java is a programming language, and language ("linguaggio") is
male in Italian.
But Java is an island, too, and island ("isola") is female...
And Oracle ("oracolo") is male, even if there are female oracles, like
the Oracle of Delphi.
I wonder if in French it is so messy... ;)
In French, genders are the same than in Italian for these nouns. It does
not feel messy at all. French does not have a neutral gender, so every
single noun is either masculine or feminine (with a few odd idiomatic
exceptions such as "gens" ["people"], which is feminine on the left and
masculine on the right, and "amour" ["love"], which switches gender when
made plural -- an everlasting source of jokes for bored linguists after
too alcoholic a meal). When all inanimate objects have a gender, the
endless american debates on how to avoid sexism in speach tend to look a
bit ridiculous.
In everyday talk between programmers, programming languages, including
Java, are masculine, and nobody finds it the slightest odd.
Also, French law makes it legal for the husband to use his wife's name,
if he wishes so.
and neuter. Also, I believe not the oracle was male or female: the
voices of the oracle were female. Which gives a certain indication as
to the gender of Python. But what does it tell us about the gender of