Male/Female for items. How do you asign gender for computer terminology?

Question

Your language is based on Male/Female for items. How do you asign what is male/female for new items such as for computer terminology?

How do you choose whether a new item, such as in Computer Terminology, is called with a Male or Female name? such as (La or El) ? strong text

Answer 1

Interesting question, Tom.

computer terms get the gender according to general rule I guess.

la pantalla (ending in a)

el teclado (ending in o)

I mean, this is not a proper rule, but at least...something to hold on.

We get some words that admit both genders:

internet. 1. amb. Red informática mundial, descentralizada, formada por la conexión directa entre computadoras u ordenadores mediante un protocolo especial de comunicación.

And others have been added to the dictionary with a gender that "sounds good":

byte. (Voz ingl.). 1. m. Inform. octeto (? unidad de información).

I have found this interesting dictionary for you.

computer terminology

in the end, all answers were correct and when all else fails, you just go by what sounds correct though there are tricky ones. internet has a tendency to being a female though. - zenejero, Oct 20, 2009

also, try the gender for the word 'sartén' (a frying pan).... i know the answer, but you may not. - zenejero, Oct 20, 2009

Answer 2

This is not always correct, but most of times words finished in "a" are femenine and other letters is masculine.

Answer 3

Pretty much the same way it was done for old words.

link

Answer 4

I don't know whether we get to choose or not, but I do know that there is still ongoing argument and discussion about this very thing. For example, some say that 'El internet' is proper while others say 'La internet' is proper, and there are many other 'tech' terms that are 'up in the air' like this. My teacher said to use whatever gender sounded 'right' to me.