Is there a meaningful reason why one of the other is picked in any language?
I thought it was random

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I don't really think anything concerning language is very "random", after all language is what we use to transmit meaning. Languages develop organically, at some point someone, or a group of people, decided (whether consciously or not does not really matter) to use one over another, and from then on the language was developed into another direction and so forth.
Clearly someone who prefers to refer to their home as "fatherland" over "motherland" wants to paint a very distinct picture I would argue.
If you, however, replace random with "arbitrary" then maybe I'd agree, still not sure. What does random even mean?Random is something that defies any expectation, logic and only adheres to it's own rule, the rule of randomness. Randomness is entirely unpredictable, it is truly chaotic. Arbitrary is similiar, but arbitrary is not chaotic. Arbitrary, to me, means something that is not grounded in reason, emotion, preference, or anything. Something, maybe a decision, that is grounded in virtually nothing. Is that even possible? Thanks for this opportunity to rant!

I've wanted to collect my thoughts on this for a while.