Comments on: He/she/they or none of the above: some thoughts on gender-neutral language http://thoughtsontranslation.com/2008/05/07/heshethey-or-none-of-the-above-some-thoughts-on-gender-neutral-language/ ...the translation industry and becoming a translator Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:30:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Surrogacy http://thoughtsontranslation.com/2008/05/07/heshethey-or-none-of-the-above-some-thoughts-on-gender-neutral-language/#comment-2691 Surrogacy Thu, 31 Dec 2009 06:01:30 +0000 http://corinnemckay.wordpress.com/?p=71#comment-2691 Great Post..... I found your site on stumbleupon and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you down the road! Thanks for sharing.... Great Post…..

I found your site on stumbleupon and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you down the road!

Thanks for sharing….

]]> By: Corinne McKay http://thoughtsontranslation.com/2008/05/07/heshethey-or-none-of-the-above-some-thoughts-on-gender-neutral-language/#comment-255 Corinne McKay Tue, 13 May 2008 16:07:21 +0000 http://corinnemckay.wordpress.com/?p=71#comment-255 Wow, I'm so glad I studied French instead of Japanese...and I would assume that this presents additional issues when you translate into English? For example it seems like there might be cases where it's important that the speaker is "encoding" his/her gender in a statement, which you can't do in English. No wonder Japanese translators are paid so well... Wow, I’m so glad I studied French instead of Japanese…and I would assume that this presents additional issues when you translate into English? For example it seems like there might be cases where it’s important that the speaker is “encoding” his/her gender in a statement, which you can’t do in English. No wonder Japanese translators are paid so well…

]]> By: Masked Translator http://thoughtsontranslation.com/2008/05/07/heshethey-or-none-of-the-above-some-thoughts-on-gender-neutral-language/#comment-249 Masked Translator Mon, 12 May 2008 06:55:47 +0000 http://corinnemckay.wordpress.com/?p=71#comment-249 Japanese is a language without grammatical gender as in Indo-European languages, and Japanese deals with gender in a very different way. First of all, the language is perfectly content to leave gendered designations or pronouns out entirely, leaving to the reader or listener to decide who is meant based on context. It's normally considered rude to address some directly, or to use a pronoun like "anata" (meaning you). Typically, the same word is used for men and women, e.g. "isha" means doctor, of either gender. However, men and women use language differently, so the gender of the speaker is often disclosed by how language is used. For instance, there are particles and prefixes that women tend to use more than men ("onna kotoba"), and some that men use more than women. For instance, to say "I" most men would say "boku" but women would say "watashi." It's actually a bit more complicated, but that's the gist. So, while the language is gender-neutral in terms of how you talk about other people or things, the language encodes the gender of the speaker (and listener) based on the speech patterns that are chosen. Japanese is a language without grammatical gender as in Indo-European languages, and Japanese deals with gender in a very different way. First of all, the language is perfectly content to leave gendered designations or pronouns out entirely, leaving to the reader or listener to decide who is meant based on context. It’s normally considered rude to address some directly, or to use a pronoun like “anata” (meaning you). Typically, the same word is used for men and women, e.g. “isha” means doctor, of either gender.

However, men and women use language differently, so the gender of the speaker is often disclosed by how language is used. For instance, there are particles and prefixes that women tend to use more than men (“onna kotoba”), and some that men use more than women. For instance, to say “I” most men would say “boku” but women would say “watashi.” It’s actually a bit more complicated, but that’s the gist. So, while the language is gender-neutral in terms of how you talk about other people or things, the language encodes the gender of the speaker (and listener) based on the speech patterns that are chosen.

]]> By: Simac http://thoughtsontranslation.com/2008/05/07/heshethey-or-none-of-the-above-some-thoughts-on-gender-neutral-language/#comment-248 Simac Mon, 12 May 2008 06:43:34 +0000 http://corinnemckay.wordpress.com/?p=71#comment-248 Latin had masculine "minister | gen. ministri" and feminine "ministra | gen. ministrae." Because of the way French evolved from Latin, both these words would be "ministre" in modern French, one "le ministre" one "la ministre." I'm not sure why French academics should be opposed to "la ministre" since Latin itself had a feminine form of the word... Latin had masculine “minister | gen. ministri” and feminine “ministra | gen. ministrae.” Because of the way French evolved from Latin, both these words would be “ministre” in modern French, one “le ministre” one “la ministre.” I’m not sure why French academics should be opposed to “la ministre” since Latin itself had a feminine form of the word…

]]> By: Ben Moger-Williams http://thoughtsontranslation.com/2008/05/07/heshethey-or-none-of-the-above-some-thoughts-on-gender-neutral-language/#comment-234 Ben Moger-Williams Wed, 07 May 2008 22:18:59 +0000 http://corinnemckay.wordpress.com/?p=71#comment-234 Interesting thoughts! I do Chinese to English translation and this problem occasionally arises in a different way. They solve the gender problem easliy enough when speaking (the word for he and she is pronounced "ta") but in writing the "ta" characters are different for he and she. Interesting thoughts! I do Chinese to English translation and this problem occasionally arises in a different way. They solve the gender problem easliy enough when speaking (the word for he and she is pronounced “ta”) but in writing the “ta” characters are different for he and she.

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