Nouns referring to people that end in -e. When feminine nouns ending in -e also have feminine forms ending in -a

Abstract

Most personal nouns ending in -e are common in terms of gender, but there are cases that alternate between -e and -a for the feminine form, and others that are exclusively masculine in the -e form. The aim of this study is, on the one hand, to determine whether the Diccionario de la lengua española (2014-2024) shows an increase in common personal nouns ending in -e in terms of gender or gender alternation, whether due to recent incorporations (el/la peque; el/la progre) or due to changes in masculine nouns ending in -e (burgomaestre/burgomaestra; el/la matarife); and, on the other hand, to gather current information on the use of feminine nouns ending in -a in cases of -e/-a alternation (la jefe/la jefa; la burgomaestre/la burgomaestra). For this basic, descriptive study, it was necessary to consult the last two editions of the Diccionario académico (the 22nd and 23rd editions), the Corpus del Español del Siglo XXI (CORPES XXI), and the Peruvian online newspaper El Comercio. The findings confirm that there has indeed been an increase in the number of common nouns ending in -e in terms of gender or gender alternation (el/la gendarme; mequetrefe/mequetrefa) in the Dictionary, as well as a reduced—or, in some cases, nonexistent—use of feminine nouns ending in -a that have feminine forms ending in -e, such as burgomaestra or pincha (kitchen assistant).