Akili Li wrote:Do you think it would be easier to learn a new gender-neutral pronoun for third person singular? Or would it be just as hard as transitioning they/them into a "plural grammar, can refer to singular" just like we use "you" now?
I do think a new word would probably be easier, except that it doesn't seem that the folks that are coming up with the new words can agree on what to use.
Amura wrote:In Spanish male plural is supposed to include both male and female: "chico" (boy), "chica" (girl) but if you want to include several people of both genders you just say "chicos".
Some of us simply change it now and then, to my students I sometimes treat them with the collective male plural but other times I use the female one "chicas".
What most people propose in Spanish is:
a) Either mention both genders (saying "chicas y chicos"), which after a while sounds extremely repetetive
b) Replace the letter that makes it sound male/female for a neutral one ("chiques", "chicXs", "chic@s") which is ok for writing but only the first one is actually readable at all.
And of course leave alone all the nouns in which the gender does not make reference to any sex.
The word table is female? Let it be.
¡El gato está debajo de la mesa!
Yeah in English "man" or "men" was used collectively for many, many years: To boldly go where no man has gone before, but suddenly that was sexist and became To boldly go where no one has gone before. I always understood the context to mean mankind in general and the use of the male word never bothered me.