Vocabulary Vexations
Hey there, readers. I was browsing news articles today, as I do on a daily basis. I came across the one in the photo here, and while I'm definitely excited about swing state voters rushing out to register, I want to talk about language today.
Note the use of "Latinxs," pronounced La-teen-exes. It's weird, right?
I'm a polyglot. I speak 3.5 languages: English, Spanish, French, and I'm in the process of learning German; I'm about 15% fluent at this point. Spanish and French are what we call Romance languages, not because they sound Romantic (though they sometimes do) but because they originate from early Latin spoken by Romans. Sorry to burst your bubbles, romantics. Anyway, in Romance languages, when something is pluralized it takes the masculine form. In Spanish, females are "latinas" and males are "latinos." A mixed group of men and women would be a group of "latinos."
Okay, you're saying, so what? Recently, we've started a trend of inclusive language in English. Some people might use the traditional "he" or "she" pronouns but some people that are a-gender or gender fluid might choose the traditionally plural form "they." Here's an example: My friend Max? They like chocolate, but not vanilla. Latinx is the Spanish form of this, I suppose. In attempts to be more inclusive and pro-feminist (this WAS a Jezebel article, after all), the writer used a term meant to imply a mixed group of Latino voters.
Here's where my issue is: languages are not inherently feminist or anti-feminist. Romance languages gender their nouns. In fact, MANY languages gender nouns, about 25% of the world's languages do. Familia (family) is feminine. Libro (book) is masculine. Is that because only women have families and only men read books? No. Hardly. Nouns get their gender for any variety of reasons, sometimes associated with the actual gender of the object, but sometimes based on morphology or phonology. For those of you that aren't super nerds like me, and didn't study linguistics, that basically means that nouns can get their gender simply because they sound better.
So, why do I care? Languages change all the time, to be fair. We create new words every day, and our brains are wired for oral language, not written. This means that we create new words simply by speaking and communicating, we borrow words from other languages (did you know weekend is actually a French word?) and things like news articles will mirror that change. So this is backward: we're using Latinx as a written word, but saying it in Spanish would feel awkward and incorrect. Not to mention, which article does it use? Las or los? Masculine or feminine? Will we create a new article to be more gender neutral? That would change the entire structure of the language. Germanic languages (like German, ha!) have neuter, but Romance languages don't. It's more problematic than it's worth, I think. Leave the language be. Let professional linguists and native Spanish speakers decide if they'd like to officially change the pluralization of words.
What do you think, readers? Do you even care? Does this irk you the way it irks me?
Note the use of "Latinxs," pronounced La-teen-exes. It's weird, right?
I'm a polyglot. I speak 3.5 languages: English, Spanish, French, and I'm in the process of learning German; I'm about 15% fluent at this point. Spanish and French are what we call Romance languages, not because they sound Romantic (though they sometimes do) but because they originate from early Latin spoken by Romans. Sorry to burst your bubbles, romantics. Anyway, in Romance languages, when something is pluralized it takes the masculine form. In Spanish, females are "latinas" and males are "latinos." A mixed group of men and women would be a group of "latinos." Okay, you're saying, so what? Recently, we've started a trend of inclusive language in English. Some people might use the traditional "he" or "she" pronouns but some people that are a-gender or gender fluid might choose the traditionally plural form "they." Here's an example: My friend Max? They like chocolate, but not vanilla. Latinx is the Spanish form of this, I suppose. In attempts to be more inclusive and pro-feminist (this WAS a Jezebel article, after all), the writer used a term meant to imply a mixed group of Latino voters.
Here's where my issue is: languages are not inherently feminist or anti-feminist. Romance languages gender their nouns. In fact, MANY languages gender nouns, about 25% of the world's languages do. Familia (family) is feminine. Libro (book) is masculine. Is that because only women have families and only men read books? No. Hardly. Nouns get their gender for any variety of reasons, sometimes associated with the actual gender of the object, but sometimes based on morphology or phonology. For those of you that aren't super nerds like me, and didn't study linguistics, that basically means that nouns can get their gender simply because they sound better.
So, why do I care? Languages change all the time, to be fair. We create new words every day, and our brains are wired for oral language, not written. This means that we create new words simply by speaking and communicating, we borrow words from other languages (did you know weekend is actually a French word?) and things like news articles will mirror that change. So this is backward: we're using Latinx as a written word, but saying it in Spanish would feel awkward and incorrect. Not to mention, which article does it use? Las or los? Masculine or feminine? Will we create a new article to be more gender neutral? That would change the entire structure of the language. Germanic languages (like German, ha!) have neuter, but Romance languages don't. It's more problematic than it's worth, I think. Leave the language be. Let professional linguists and native Spanish speakers decide if they'd like to officially change the pluralization of words.
What do you think, readers? Do you even care? Does this irk you the way it irks me?
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