why is baby it and dogs he or she

"I'm talking about the old English way of assigning gender (Masc, Fem, Neut) to nouns Dufus

we don't say: the man; tha lady; and that child (i.e. "the child" neut)

You knew exactly what I meant @sshole"

Charming! But, as your descent into rudeness really only discredits your own intellect, I can choose to ignore it.

Anyway, you've got everything backwards. It's nouns and pronouns that have gender; the article takes its gender from the noun it modifies. In the case of modern English, the article is invariable.

But even though it's just "the man", "the lady" and "the child", "man" is still masculine, "lady" is still feminine and "child" (unless its sex is relevant) is still neuter.

<<Charming! But, as your descent into rudeness really only discredits your own intellect, I can choose to ignore it.
>>

Yeah, but you didn't now did you!
You're the same sh*t as the rest of us, aren't you!

<<Anyway, you've got everything backwards. It's nouns and pronouns that have gender; the article takes its gender from the noun it modifies. In the case of modern English, the article is invariable.>>

I don't think so.
English articles come from demonstrative PRONOUNS.

<<But even though it's just "the man", "the lady" and "the child", "man" is still masculine, "lady" is still feminine and "child" (unless its sex is relevant) is still neuter. >>

Someday I'll teach you pitiful humans to heed the *message*; not the messenger... :)

<<Charming! But, as your descent into rudeness really only discredits your own intellect, I can choose to ignore it.
>>

Intellect has nothing to do with being rude. Perhaps the poster was only having a bad day. Perhaps your arrogant refusal to accept what he/she said (though it was 100% true) infuriated him/her.

It's called "testosterone" folks--look it up.

Don't throw out the baby (pun completely intended! :) with the bathwater because of a hurt feeling

we all get hurt sometimes

Given that I'm nothing more than an online persona, I'm hardly hurt. I couldn't care less about the poster having a bad day.

"English articles come from demonstrative PRONOUNS."

Quite meaningless in the context of the discussion which is modern English. In modern English, there are only two forms of the definite article "the" and neither is based on gender.

And again, even in languages where the article does indicate gender, it is the noun, not its modifier that determines gender.

<<Quite meaningless in the context of the discussion which is modern English. In modern English, there are only two forms of the definite article "the" and neither is based on gender.
>>

Yes, but the original question was "*WHY* is [a] baby [referred to as] 'it'..."

And the reason given by the poster stating that it is a hold-over of Old English's use of neuter gender association with children (almost all Old English nouns meaning "child"/"baby" were neuter: 'þæt cild' = 'hit' ["it"], 'þæt bearn', 'þæt umbor', etc) is true, even though yes, Modern English's assignment of the true grammatical gender form of these nouns has fallen away.

In other words, during the Old English period, it was customary to refer to any child as an "it" because "child" was neuter and this was grammatically correct.

This habit of calling a child "it" continued throughout the Middle English period and on into Modern English even after grammatical gender in English was lost. And it survives today, being aided by the fact that sometimes the exact gender of the child is unknown.

This is *why*

"This is *why*"

No, it's not.

The reason that "child" and "baby" are refered to as "it" is quite simple: they're both neuter nouns (if the sex of a child or baby is not specified).

<<No, it's not.

The reason that "child" and "baby" are refered to as "it" is quite simple: they're both neuter nouns (if the sex of a child or baby is not specified). >>

Are you merely guessing?

Can you provide proof to the contrary that the previous poster(s) explanation is not the reason why a baby is called an "it"?

What research you have done on the matter?

Amabo,

Can you give us the timeframe when "it" for baby first appeared or became widespread?

Let me ask a very simple question: what gender is the noun "baby" when the sex is not known?