A one-mountain "gebirge": how collective can the German ("Hun") be?

J:

"Der Berg = mountain. Das Gebirge = mountains. In that case I reluctantly grant that the piratenzunge, aka Anglo might be superior, or at least easier than the formal yet poetic Deutsch."

Poetic?

The logical point is geographical. Surely, there are no big mountains in England (cfr. that Wales-filmed film with Hugh Grant, "The Englishman who went up a hill and come down a mountain", or something).

J:

"There is a Mountain; there are the mountains. So the Anglo picks up the french-y plural with "s", instead of german root changes, case, and the blasted articles."

Yes. But surely the Germans could just as well called these "die" (plural 'the') and 'Berge' (plural for 'Berg', as in "Die Berge des Himalaya", in Asia, as seen by the Germans). So 'ge-birge' seems otiose, and odd.

J:

"But in German there are few if any ambiguities (same with trad. latin, and greek I imagine). The cases/plurals/objects are always quite clear (if puzzling to Mericans, who want to know why mountains are male...o Mr Mountain. Then they do the same with any euro language...Las Montanas...what the F's up wit' dat, Jed? Montanas? Like a female mountain?? )

----

Yes, the blame is in indo-European, which had gender.
Oddly, English still retains gender ("That ship is a beauty, she is" -- but oddly, I was told that 'ship' was a _neuter_ noun in Old English).

But I may want to analyse further the problem with the one-mountain 'mountain group' (gebirge). So stay tuned.