Is your mandolin male or female?

[journeybear]

I whip mine like a mule so prefer to think of it as an inanimate object.

I was gonna say something about mules being unable to reproduce and thus genderless, but a bit of research reveals they are not genderless but infertile, due to chromosomal difficulties. So I won't.

A rarely-occurring fertile female mule is called a molly. Just so you know, my Molly is not a mule. So ... no whipping!

[Jim Bevan]

Well, I suppose mine are male, 'cuz they're extensions of me, they're my tools, my voice, they say what I want to say etc.

I'm in a hotel room with a bunch of guy stuff, and that H2 sittin' in the chair ain't feminizing the room one bit. It's actually the same age as my dad would be, so if anything, it's the most masculine mando I've got.
Plus, that body shape wouldn't do any woman proud.

[MikeEdgerton]

Let's keep in mind that this is a family forum.

[zedmando]

Mandolins, like all musical instruments are neither male nor female.

Although in languages that have gendered nouns I guess they might be.

[journeybear]

Hmmm ... Intriguing notion. Wikipedia says: mandolin (Italian: mandolino; literally "small mandola"). If Italian follows the Spanish model, in which "-o" tends to indicate masculinity and "-a" tends to indicate femininity, then the mandolin is a mother's son. As we all know, though, languages are trendously inconsistent. For example, in Spanish, "egg," about as feminine a noun as is possible, translates as "huevo," a masculine noun. But let me take a quick glance through my Seven Language dictionary and see what I find.

[zedmando]

Hmmm ... Intriguing notion. Wikipedia says: mandolin (Italian: mandolino; literally "small mandola"). If Italian follows the Spanish model, in which "-o" tends to indicate masculinity and "-a" tends to indicate femininity, then the mandolin is a mother's son.

That's cool.

let us know of the research results.

[journeybear]

As if I wouldn't!

Initial results confirm what I already knew: This isn't much of a reference tool. Of the four Romance languages included, two (Spanish and Portuguese) have it as "mandolina" - feminine - but the other two Italian and French) don't have it at all. This is especially discouraging as those are the two languages cited above. German doesn't have it either, and I'm not going to struggle with either the Hebrew nor Russian alphabets. And finally, very disappointingly, none of the sections translating from English have "mandolin" at all. And for this I skipped "Jeopardy!"? Feh! OK, I taped it.

Anyway, it looks like there's a pattern. Even so, the OP's question isn't about this, but personal choices for owners. Besides, there are many instances of men with women's names and women with men's names. So ... never mind.

[sblock]

Here's how other languages say "mandolin."


NEUTER:
English: the mandolin (neuter).
Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Hungarian: mandolin (neuter)
Finnish: mandoliini (neuter)

GENDERED:
Italian: il mandolino (masculine)
French: la mandoline (feminine)
German: die Mandoline (feminine)
Spanish: la mandolina (feminine)
Portugese: o bandolim (masculine)
Esperanto: la mandolino (feminine)
Russian: мандолина (feminine)
Czech: mandolína (feminine)
מנדולינה Hebrew (feminine)

The word for "mandolin" is considered to be MASCULINE in just Italian and Portugese, but it's FEMININE in most other European languages, including Spanish, French, Russian, and German. And Hebrew, too.

Looks like the gals have it!

P.S. Of course, being masculine or feminine does not necessarily make you male or female. And beyond that, we also have to worry about the gender identity of our mandolins, which may be different from their sex.

[journeybear]

Thanks! Poking through google translate was pretty pokey - no gender indicator, which implied having to go to each language for further information - but the overwhelming majority of spelling variations were "mandoline" and "mandolina," which implied feminine. "Mandolin" showed up a lot, though I suspect that may often be as a default.

It's interesting to see how some languages spell it, perhaps to accommodate distinctive pronunciation rules. I really enjoyed how the word looks in other alphabets, though, especially those which are completely foreign to me:

Afrikaans: mandolien
Albanian: mandolinë
Arabic: مندولين آلة موسيقية
Armenian: մանդոլինա
Bengali: ম্যান্ডোলীন
Chinese: 曼多林
Estonian: mandoliin
Finnish: mandoliini
Georgian: მანდოლინა
Greek: μαντολίνο
Hebrew: מנדולינה
Hindi: सारंगी की तरह का एक बाजा
Icelandic: mendólín
Irish: maindilín
Japanese: マンドリン
Kannada: ಮ್ಯಾಂಡೊಲಿನ್
Korean: 만돌린
Lao: ພິນ
Malayalam: മാൻഡലിൻ
Marathi: एक तंतुवाद्य
Persian: ماندولین
Sinhala: ඇසුවේ
Tamil: மான்டோலின்
Telugu: మాండొలిన్
Thai: แมนโดลิน
Vietnamese: đờn măng đô lin
Yiddish: מאַנדאַלין

[Mark Wilson]

Mine cost me more than I had in mind and demands a lot of attention. Even thought it looks great I find myself looking at others like it. So... not male.

[sblock]

You can use Google Translate for this information, but you often have to be tricky to get it to cough up the gender, because it's not very consistent. For example, try placing an indefinite or possessive article in front of the noun, and make it translate something like "the mandolin" or, of that doesn't work, then "my mandolin." Of course, you might then have to look up the gendered forms of the article, if you don't happen to know these. Words like "il" and "la" are pretty easy, if you know some Romance languages, but "o" and "mitt" might give you pause.

[MysTiK PiKn]

Mine's a boy mando. His name is "Brat". And, like me, he enjoys being a brat. I taught him that.
He has had a rough life, mainly he's an abandoned child. When he came to me, those issues came with. I had issues with the seller, but I eventually discovered he had been abandoned by the dealer, the original owner, the seller to me, and I am the 4th in the line of ownership. None of the issues were ever dealt with. The Mighty Brat (His full title) had been ignored through his first 2 years.
So here was all this dysfunctional stuff going on. It was only natural that he came to me; and also natural that all that dysfunctional stuff came with him - issues of neglect and abandonment. He had always been disrespected and ignored and just passed around like he didn't matter.
I taught him self-appreciation. I taught him it was completely normal for him to be a brat - with his background, what chance did he have? So we started where he was at, and moved forward, in appreciation. And he has the power he acquired as a Brat - because that was his protection, and his way through the abuse and neglect he had so beautifully endured. And he came through it in beautiful mint condition, his triple A flame maple was in perfect condition. There wasn't a mark on him. Only the signs of neglect.
So I told him that I adopted him. And we sat down together and we played, and I shed a tear, which landed on his fine spruce top, with his perfect nitrocellulose lacquer finish. I had never heard such beautiful sound, not felt so close to any instrument.
I promised to help him with his recovery process; and I asked him if there was anything he was not willing to do for his personal recovery; and he said he would do whatever it takes. And that was all it took; failure was not an option. Only a process of progress.
I had to be very attentive. Over time he revealed more and more to me just what he needed. And I told him he was under my care; and we would eventually get through it all. I further told him that it was a process, that we were already recovered together, and that it simply had not happened yet. The important part was to go through the process.
And all of this was miraculously accomplished with the help of all the great people on this forum. If I did not know how to provide the necessary care, I was able to receive powerful insight from simply reading the many wonderful forum posts here. And you all played a part in that simply by being here; because you being here makes this place something unique - something it could not be were you not here. Brat and I appreciate that your are all here.
I received ideas, suggestions, advice, guidance, pictures, silly jokes, fun, good times, and direction; and I was so gifted by all of you, that it was almost effortless to pass these many gifts on to Brat; and lo and behold, he began to smile, and to sing, and to break E strings - in fact, he broke 4 of them. Such a brat. He suggested we complain to the music store - so we went for a wee drive, and got some free new strings from the music store. We also received many looks of admiration - Brat was the most beautiful mandothingy in the entire store. The Mighty Brat was a bright light.!!!!
Something happened just recently, he suggested turn the truss rod the other way, so I did. I was thinking of making changes to the nut - but the truss rod changed everything, nut improved, action went low, I also lowered the bridge, tailpiece was aligned with the top of the bridge - and the mighty Brat Loar 700 wants to fly now. He Roars. He is the Loar that Roars.
And he is grateful for everything he has gained in his interesting life; and wants to express his appreciation of himself, and you, and all that has been provided for him.
He just tells me to say Thank You to all of you. He wouldn't be what and who he is today, were it not for all of you. And also, he knows he would not be what he is today, had he not found a way to get paid for the hard work he had done, to endure, until the miracle happened. He tells me he is doing good today. I tell him, he always was doing good - and he's such a Brat.

[Emmett Marshall]

One male and two females

[Ivan Kelsall]

To attibute a 'gender' to any of mine, would be to rob them of their own individuality. I view mine simply as incredible pieces of craftsmanship on which i can play music that i enjoy,that's as much as it needs to be - for me !,
Ivan

[mtucker]

Why men usually prefer mandolins over their spouses...

You can trade your old Gibson for a new Kimble and make a clean getaway

You can keep one mandolin at home and have another for when you're on the road and your one at home doesn’t mind

If you admire a friend's mandolin and tell him so, he will probably let you try it out a few times

Your mandolin will stay with you even if you run out of picks

Your mandolin doesn't take up nearly as much closet space

Mandolins function normally every day of the month

Your mandolin doesn't ask, “Does this new strap make me look fat?”

Your mandolin doesn't care if you go to sleep after you use it

You can mute your mandolin so it can hardly be heard

[JEStanek]

^^^Hmmm. I would hope your partner/spouse doesn't read that, even if written in jest.

Seriously. Consider how our female members may read these comments.

Jamie

[journeybear]

I was thinking somewhat similar things - male-oriented sexist clichés - but still, funny. I'd like to see a similar list from the feminine perspective. Guys could stand some upbraiding for their silliness. Fair's fair.

[JeffD]

I think any gender attribution I would assign would say more about me and my relationship history. There is no accurate answer of course.

I thought it was cliché that guitars are female, in the hands of male players.

[Gary Leonard]

The Weber is a male.

The Collings MT, she's a male. Has some gender identity issues to straighten out, but gender identity doesn't really define what the mandolin is, it's still a nice mandolin.

[Bertram Henze]

I think any gender attribution I would assign would say more about me and my relationship history.

A truth that applies for everybody, of course. But only the wise act by it ;-)

[Scott Tichenor]

Enough misogynistic and inappropriate gender references. This is all covered in the posting guidelines and clearly has no place in this forum.