Gender-Neutral German?

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Slava
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Gender-Neutral German?

Postby Slava » Tue Mar 25, 2014 6:11 pm

Is it even possible? One of the proposals put forth in the article below is to use the feminine plural for all plurals, instead of the masculine. That's just the same problem in reverse, if you ask me.

Here's the article. I look forward to your comments!
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Perry Lassiter
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Re: Gender-Neutral German?

Postby Perry Lassiter » Wed Mar 26, 2014 2:02 pm

If I were a woman, I might feel different. That said, "humankind" sounds weird, and I never considered "mankind" as sexist, nor excluding women. Out of consideration, I generally use "people." On pronouns I prefer using plural forms of they for coontexts including both sexes or indeterminate sexes. I've tried alternating "he" and "she," and applaud when others use it. However, in reading a text like that, I pause a second to note what they are doing and why. I'm. Less likely to do that with "they." As fur die Deutch o Español, no one really knows why one noun takes masculine and another feminine. Really! Are you going to revise the whole language?
pl

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Slava
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Re: Gender-Neutral German?

Postby Slava » Wed Mar 26, 2014 2:15 pm

I think they are trying to work around the Indeterminate Masculine Pronoun. Changing the entire language would be quite the undertaking, and would take generations to become the norm, if ever.

English still hasn't managed it, and we haven't had many gendered nouns for centuries.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.


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