Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => Politics => Topic started by: Hawkmoon on September 19, 2021, 10:22:46 AM
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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10001217/German-ministers-crack-gender-neutral-language-universities.html
Apparently, nine German universities issued gender-neutral language guidelines. A Bavarian minister has come out against them.
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Bavaria, with the majority Southern German Catholic population, has always been one of the more conservative parts of Germany. It's where all my relatives are.
The German language would be an interesting test on their "gender neutral" crap, given that practically everything is referred to in the masculine or feminine (e.g., dogs are masculine, cats are feminine). Same with all the other languages that are heavily gendered. Seems like English has far fewer male/female identifiers than a lot of other languages.
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Same with Spanish. In Spanish, a group of all males is "ellos," a group of all females is "ellas," and a mixed group is "ellos." I don't see that changing soon but, if it does, I'm sure my idiot daughter will be leading the charge.
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French is the same, any group of things (not just people) with mixed gender will normally be referred to as "ils" or "le" but a group of all feminine things will be "elles" or "la". But it really doesn't have anything to do with the people being male or female, it's just whether the words are one category or other. It would be the same with a mixed group of carburetors and plants. A group of carburetors would be "ils", a mixed group of carburetors and plants would still be "ils", but a group of all plants would be "elles". French really doesn't have a system of animacy like English (or Japanese). Inanimate things are referred to exactly the same as animate ones.
Also fun, in French the word "personne" (which means about the same thing as "person" in English), is feminine, so you always say "la personne" even if "la personne" is a male. And if you have a group of "personnes" it's referred to as "elles" like a group of women, even if it's a group of men.
Of course, "la victime" is always feminine; doesn't matter if he/she is a guy or girl, it's always "la victime" and we should feel sorry for "elle" ("her").
The word "équipe" ("team") is feminine, so every World Cup, I have to get used to the announcers referring to all the soccer teams (all men) as "elles" again.