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Genderless languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| Henkkles Triglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4259 days ago 544 posts - 1141 votes  Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish Studies: Russian | Message 9 of 18 21 June 2013 at 12:20am | IP Logged | |||||
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Exactly. Whereas Russian makes one constantly think of someone's gender, for example in the preteritum of any verb, the only time you have to think of someone's gender in Finnish if you use a noun that is specific to females, such as 'woman.'
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| Cabaire Senior Member Germany Joined 5605 days ago 725 posts - 1352 votes | Message 10 of 18 21 June 2013 at 4:05am | IP Logged | |||||
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I have heard that the difference between Chinese 他 (he) and 她 (she) is a modern usage, a sort of emancipation, when women did not want any more to write the glyph 人 ([male?] person) in their pronoun, but prefered to replace it with a woman (女).
Can anyone confirm this notion or is this an urban legend? PS. The two characters are still homophones (tā), of course. Edited by Cabaire on 21 June 2013 at 4:07am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jarel Diglot Groupie Turkey Joined 4332 days ago 57 posts - 77 votes Speaks: Turkish*, English Studies: Italian, German | Message 11 of 18 21 June 2013 at 9:23am | IP Logged | |||||
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Well in Turkish; the third person singular and plural pronouns are neutral. Also language does not use distinctive articles for genders (Turkish doesn't even have definite article though ) and names don't have a gender. Likewise verbs are not conjugated differently according to the gender of the subject. But there are words for female persons; such as mother, grandmother, wife, hostess etc. Turks used to have different words for some male and female professions (such as "müdire" for female director and "müdür for male one ) but that distinction is loosing ground. Even then most professions are genderless.
Even for words such as nephew/niece, brother/sister Turkish doesn't have gender difference. But one might add a prefix or preword to point out the person mentioned is female, though it is not mandatory. ("kızkardeş" for sister instead of "kardeş" a unisex word for both brother and sister) Obviously it is not a perfectly genderless language (not even close) but to me it seems it is as genderless as it gets in modern world. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5172 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 12 of 18 21 June 2013 at 6:02pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Papiamentu doesn't have morphological genders, apart from some fossilized constructs of Spanish origins.
Georgian doesn't have morphological gender either, not even for 3rd person prounons. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| darkwhispersdal Senior Member Wales Joined 6046 days ago 294 posts - 363 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Ancient Greek, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, Latin | Message 13 of 18 21 June 2013 at 9:44pm | IP Logged | |||||
I don't know about change of use but according to the book Du's Handbook of Classical Chinese Grammar there was a pseudo pronoun 妾 (qiè) that means both [you] concubine and I (used by wives and unrelated women) and another word qīng used by a husband to address a wife but also has the meaning of (my) minister. These two are described as common in the book but how common they were in spoken Chinese upto the present I have no idea. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4450 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 14 of 18 21 June 2013 at 10:29pm | IP Logged | |||||
The Chinese language in simple terms do not have subject-verb conjugations. You use gender-based pronouns only in writing: 他/她/它 (he/she/it) with the same pronunciation "tā" for all 3. 你/妳 for you also with the same pronunciation. When it comes to family relations they do distinguish between older and younger members of the family, the father and the mother's side of the family. A language that is not only gender-based but also seniority-based. In the past when people used to have large families, the aunts and uncles are referred to not by name but commonly by number such as from 1- 8 or whatever. We don't necessarily know their birth dates but we know who is older than who. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| leroc Senior Member United States Joined 4317 days ago 114 posts - 167 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 15 of 18 22 June 2013 at 7:59am | IP Logged | |||||
How about Parent A and Parent I. The A and I are alternated between male and female every week. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Darklight1216 Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5106 days ago 411 posts - 639 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German | Message 16 of 18 22 June 2013 at 8:12pm | IP Logged | |||||
You are correct in saying that it's not widespread or common, but it does exist...
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/01/07/passport-applicat ions-soon-gender-neutral/#ixzz2WyBjOwCI From what I understand, the word "hen" can be used in Swedish in lieu of he and she or him and her or something like that. I don't know much about it at all, but it might possible to use neutral terminology in Swedish. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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