Animate + In-Animate gender?

[Nano2011]

Hi!
I was creating a new conlang, and then an idea popped into my head, what if i have as noun genders, inanimate, animate, and one for something that is both animate and inanimate, such as water. (well, as far as my conpeople are concerned)
But I was simply wondering, what is the proper term for a gender for nouns that are both animate and inanimate? (Or is their even one?)

(sorry if this is a question that has a obvious answer, I'm self taught at linguistics, and so, my terminology is not up to date )

[Jetboy]

I don't know much about the subject, so I don't know if this is normal or not, but I think PIE had separate words it used for the animate uses of such words, and others for the inanimate uses, like English "fire", Greek "πῦρ" (pŷr), versus Latin "ignis"

[MisterBernie]

PIE seems to also have had couple roots for water, *akʷ-, *h₂ep- and *wed- (the latter is given as 'wet' but seems to be used for water in a couple of branches), so that would be one way of going about it.

If you want to keep three genders/noun classes, there are three ways I see for naming them.
I - animate - 'human' class
II - mixed - 'water' class
III - inanimate - 'rock' class

[Bob Johnson]

If you're just looking for what to call it, there's nothing wrong with "mixed" as mentioned above, or "other." Some langs simply number the noun classes, as well.

[Nano2011]

Ok, thanks!
I'll use mixed for my language!
(ugh, i don't know what to say here...)

[Xephyr]

Your example reminds me of a gender system I pondered putting in a conlang once, with a two way mobility vs motility distinction. [Im]mobile nouns being things that can['t] be moved, and [Im]motile nouns being things that do[n't] move on their own. So:

immobile-immotile: mountain, house, etc
immobile-motile: river, sun, etc
mobile-immotile: rock, stick, etc
mobile-motile: child, dog, etc

[Mecislau]

Isn't the usual term for things like this "epicene"?

[Chuma]

I think "epicene" is usually for things that relate to both masculine and feminine, but it's from a Greek word for "common", so that should be okay. Or you could call it "common" - we have that in Swedish.

[TomHChappell]

PIE seems to also have had couple roots for water, *akʷ-, *h₂ep- and *wed- (the latter is given as 'wet' but seems to be used for water in a couple of branches), so that would be one way of going about it.

If you want to keep three genders/noun classes, there are three ways I see for naming them.
I - animate - 'human' class
II - mixed - 'water' class
III - inanimate - 'rock' class

Usually if you have two "main genders", and a "neither" gender, the "neither" gender is called "Neuter".
Usually if you have a few "main genders", and a "both" or "a bit of each" or "mixed" gender, the latter is called "Common" or "Epicene" or "Mixed".

So like MisterBernie said, "Mixed" would be a perfectly good name for your gender of animate-and-inanimate things.