The simple answer I’m seeing on a quick review is that it is a way to simplify the complexity of the many possible nouns that could be uttered.
“LA pap”
“LE pep”
These are imaginary words but the articles will help distinguish them from each other for a native speaker. They sound similar but I know it was “pap” and not “pep” because I also heard “la”.
Also, gender is just ONE of the many possible dimensions used by noun classes in language. There are also things like size and animate/inanimate that are used by languages.
The simple answer I’m seeing on a quick review is that it is a way to simplify the complexity of the many possible nouns that could be uttered.
“LA pap”
“LE pep”
These are imaginary words but the articles will help distinguish them from each other for a native speaker. They sound similar but I know it was “pap” and not “pep” because I also heard “la”.
Also, gender is just ONE of the many possible dimensions used by noun classes in language. There are also things like size and animate/inanimate that are used by languages.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noun_class