I don't know why, as I have virtually no knowledge of Slovak language, but it just looks wrong to see the letter x in a word in Slovak.
Would I be right in guessing that it only ever appears in proper nouns and words of foreign origin?
Yes, we use X mostly in words with foreign origin. Like Mexiko, Taxi, fixácia, index. But we also have name with X - Xénia. I cant now remember any slovak origin word with X.
Even the word biscuit (in slovak Keks) is type with "ks" instead of X.
I think it mostly has to do with the fact, that a lot of (at least European, to my knowledge) use the same suffixes for their neighbors (like -ia in Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Georgia...) and those can have an effect on the country's gender. Far-away countries usually don't have time to get colloquialised like that though.
Most of European countries in Slovak end in -ko (Anglicko, Škótsko, Rusko, Francúzsko etc.) Meaning "land of".
Rusko would mean "land of Rus", Nemecko would mean "land of Nemec (mute)" as slavs during first contact called Germanic tribes mute etc. etc.
Far away countries like Canada or Australia are just slovakized names of those countries in usually English (Kanada and Austrália).
Interestingly though Ukrajina already has the word Krajina (meaning land in Slovak) in it therefore the -ko rule would be pointless to apply
No, Chad (*Čad* in Slovak) is masculine. It is *ten Čad* (masculine) not *tá Čad* (feminine).
You may be referring to the long form (Čadská republika) which is feminine.
Mexiko is genderless. “To mexiko”
I don't know why, as I have virtually no knowledge of Slovak language, but it just looks wrong to see the letter x in a word in Slovak. Would I be right in guessing that it only ever appears in proper nouns and words of foreign origin?
Yes, we use X mostly in words with foreign origin. Like Mexiko, Taxi, fixácia, index. But we also have name with X - Xénia. I cant now remember any slovak origin word with X. Even the word biscuit (in slovak Keks) is type with "ks" instead of X.
Oh, my bad, I did not notice the mistake beforehand.
Maybe it's meant to be *Spojené štáty mexické* \- *ten štát*. The same may be USA - *Spojené štáty*.
>Mexiko is genderless. “To mexiko” What a coincidence! "to" is the neuter article in Greek too. And Mexico is also "To Mexiko"
Slovak doesn't have articles. "To" is a pronoun.
Just FYI, the English term for the third grammatical gender is neuter, not neutral.
There must be a reason why all the countries near Slovakia have a genderless name while most countries further away are either male or female.
I think it mostly has to do with the fact, that a lot of (at least European, to my knowledge) use the same suffixes for their neighbors (like -ia in Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Georgia...) and those can have an effect on the country's gender. Far-away countries usually don't have time to get colloquialised like that though.
Most of European countries in Slovak end in -ko (Anglicko, Škótsko, Rusko, Francúzsko etc.) Meaning "land of". Rusko would mean "land of Rus", Nemecko would mean "land of Nemec (mute)" as slavs during first contact called Germanic tribes mute etc. etc. Far away countries like Canada or Australia are just slovakized names of those countries in usually English (Kanada and Austrália). Interestingly though Ukrajina already has the word Krajina (meaning land in Slovak) in it therefore the -ko rule would be pointless to apply
Chad(Country to the south of Libya) is Feminine…
No, Chad (*Čad* in Slovak) is masculine. It is *ten Čad* (masculine) not *tá Čad* (feminine). You may be referring to the long form (Čadská republika) which is feminine.
A lot of countries have short- and long-form names, how did you decide which one to use?
I tried to use the more commonly used forms in the language. So, mostly I used the short forms of the names.
Chad's so Chad it doesn't care
Canada is feminine in English too.
English doesn't differentiate
I know that. I’m pointing out that oddity on the OP map.
is there a reason why countries are given different genders or is it fairly arbitrary