Most Romance languages have two genders. Feminine derived from Latin feminine, and masculine derived from Latin masculine and neuter. Some keep a vestigial neuter, but this thread is not about that.
In many Romance languages, feminine nouns end with -a while masculine nouns end with -o. In these, the ending -e can be found on both masculine and feminine words. Could a language naturally develop this into a third epicene gender? For a rough example, this would lead to something like: gato bello "handsome tomcat"; gata bella "pretty she-cat"; gate belle "attractive cat"
With any POD, is this at all possible? If not, could it be introduced later due to some kind of language reform?
In many Romance languages, feminine nouns end with -a while masculine nouns end with -o. In these, the ending -e can be found on both masculine and feminine words. Could a language naturally develop this into a third epicene gender? For a rough example, this would lead to something like: gato bello "handsome tomcat"; gata bella "pretty she-cat"; gate belle "attractive cat"
With any POD, is this at all possible? If not, could it be introduced later due to some kind of language reform?