The study explores the principles of gender assignment, gender syncretism and gender loss in Germanic languages. The point of departure is an ideal-typical classification of the current gender systems in Germanic languages into four types: stable tripartite gender systems, stable binary gender systems, unstable gender systems and genderless languages.
On the basis of some features of the dialects spoken on the Frisian islands of Sylt, Föhr and Amrum, and of the developments in a north Germanic variety, the study aims to demonstrate that the research on currently existing unstable gender systems can contribute to the studies of gender within General and Contrastive Linguistics.
