Hi, I have a somewhat strange question for you people from the US and especially from NYC. When locals speak about the city in an affectionate way, does people ever refer to it as "Her/she"? I know in some european languages, cities are considered feminine, how about NY? Does cities in general have a gender in AM English? Or does no one ever talk about it that way? If they do, is it a specific generation who uses those terms?
I don't think I've ever heard of a city being referred to as he. So from my experience, most cities are referred to as she. Also, not many people talk that way in general. We tend to just say the city's name.
When places are personified in English - it's almost always as a she - I think we use "it" a lot more, but when people (especially men) have a deep emotional relationship with a place they'll occasionally refer to it as a woman. I've heard this mainly in terms of artists referring to the millieu of the city that shaped them - New York being one of those you hear it for. I've also heard it a lot regarding Nashville (the hub of country music) - actually Eric Church's most recent album has a song called "Devil, Devil" that has a lengthy spoken-word prelude titled "Princess of Darkness" personifying Nashville as a woman.
Thanks to both of you. Commandande Lemming, what you said: "when people (especially men) have a deep emotional relationship with a place they'll occasionally refer to it as a woman. I've heard this mainly in terms of artists referring to the millieu of the city that shaped them - New York being one of those you hear it for." That was pretty much the impression I had as well, so I'm glad to hear that.
I've heard of New York City being called a "lady" and that's sort of how I refer to it. (Ex: "New York City. She sure is a beauty.")
I would hazard that the presence of the Statue of Liberty has at least some small roll to play in NYC being seen as a lady rather than a fellah'.
