In rec.sport.fencing on Sat, 31 Jan 2004 14:09:50 -0500
Amy & Joseph Kormann <ajkormann@monmouth.com> wrote:
> Point of confusion, what's the appropriate way to refer to a female
> maestro? Maestra doesn't sound right but might be correct.
From my fencing master, trained in Italy, speaks Italian quite fluently
as he worked there for some years:
=====
The word "maestra" exists an means a female teacher, much the same as
"maestro" means a male teacher. In English there's only one word for
teacher (ie., obviously, "teacher") and thus you can't really use it to
explain different levels of competencies and expertise as you can in
Italian. In Italian there's the generic word for teacher, "insegnante",
and then there's "maestro"/"maestra" used to indicate specialist
incarnations of the more generic term.
"Maestro" and "maestra", while probably originally both meant the same
thing, have evolved separately in usage (probably due to early male
dominance in some fields, as well as the italian linguistic bias towards
the male gender---eg. for a crowd of females you use the female plural;
add one male to that same crowd and you use the male plural to refer to
the crowd---to the point where you can't say that a female "maestro" is
a "maestra" or vice versa. Indeed, when I hear the term "maestra" I
think of a kindergarten teacher (ie. being typically female and the word
is probably easier to say for the young'uns than the longer
"insegnante").
In professional areas, too (and this is probably the most telling
point), what you get on your diploma is "Maestro di Scherma". The total
body of fencing masters is going to be referred to using the male plural
form ("maestri") and thus any single member (referred to generically) is
typically going to be a "maestro".
Thus, when you refer to a fencing master of either gender you would
probably best address them as "Maestro".
===
Zebee
Linear Mode
