Gender reform in Esperanto

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Template:Short description Template:Esperanto sidebar Gender asymmetry is an aspect of the constructed international auxiliary language Esperanto which has been challenged by numerous proposals seeking to regularize both grammatical and lexical gender.

In the text below, when a proposed word or usage is not grammatically correct according to the standard rules of Esperanto grammar, it will be marked with an asterisk (*).

Gender in Esperanto

Template:Main article Esperanto does not have grammatical gender other than in the two personal pronouns Template:Lang "he" and Template:Lang "she" and their derivatives. Nevertheless, lexical gender is sometimes an issue. In practical usage words formed with the suffix -Template:Lang "person" are ambiguous, sometimes used with a masculine meaning in the singular, but generally neutral in the plural. However, concepts of gender have changed over time, and many words that were once considered masculine are now neutral, especially words related to professions and animals. In older texts it is only context that disambiguates. For example, in the saying Template:Lang "to a happy man, even a Template:Lang gives eggs" (Zamenhof), the word Template:Lang means "cockerel/rooster", not "chicken".<ref>Kalocsay & Waringhien, Plena analiza gramatiko (1985:61)</ref> However, this can be confusing to those who are not familiar with that saying, as the word Template:Lang has become more neutral over time.

In modern usage, most noun roots are lexically neutral, a couple of dozen are lexically masculine, and a smaller number lexically feminine. Most masculine roots may be made feminine through the addition of the suffix -Template:Lang and made to describe a group of both males and females with the addition of Template:Lang-. For example, Template:Lang means "father", Template:Lang "mother", and Template:Lang "parents", but Template:Lang cannot traditionally be used in the singular for Template:Lang "parent". For these gendered roots there is no easy way to make them gender-neutral in the singular. Often there is a separate root that acts like this, for example Template:Lang "boy" → Template:Lang "child"; Template:Lang "son" → Template:Lang "offspring", etc. Some neutral counterparts can be made with word-building. The approximate meaning of "parent" can be achieved with Template:Lang "genitor" or Template:Lang "one of the parents". However, it is more common to simply say Template:Lang "one of the parents" or Template:Lang "father or mother".

The most common roots that are masculine unless specifically marked as feminine are:

Gender-neutral roots such as Template:Lang "lion" and Template:Lang "waiter" may be made feminine with a grammatical suffix (Template:Lang "lioness", Template:Lang "waitress"), but there is no comparable way to derive the masculine; there was not even originally a word for "male".<ref name=PAG32>Plena analiza gramatiko, § 32(A)</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Words without a feminine suffix may take a masculine reading, especially in the case of people and domestic animals; Template:Lang, for example, means "chicken", but is read as masculine in Template:Lang "rooster and hen".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Zamenhof used the nominal root Template:Lang "man, human male" to make words for animals masculine. Originally this took the form of a suffix -Template:Lang,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> but in response to criticisms that the resulting words such as Template:Lang "bull" were ambiguous with mythological man–animal hybrids such as minotaurs (also Template:Lang), Zamenhof switched to using Template:Lang as a prefix in his translation of Genesis finished in 1915.<ref name=PAG372>Plena analiza gramatiko, § 372</ref> This usage has spread, and Template:Lang- is now widely used as a prefix in the case of animals (Template:Lang "man-lion", Template:Lang "man-human"), but as a separate adjective Template:Lang for professions<ref name=PMEGafiks>Template:Cite web</ref> (Template:Lang "man waiter"), with -Template:Lang now considered archaic, though neither of these conventions is as common as feminine -Template:Lang. Moreover, the prefix Template:Lang- is idiomatic, as Template:Lang (man-bovine) could still mean either "bull" or "minotaur/cherub"; it is only by convention that it is generally understood to mean "bull", and writers have coined words such as Template:Lang "bull" to bypass the issue.<ref name=PAG32 />

Common elements to regularizing Esperanto gender

Critics such as Dale Spender and Veronica Zundel feel that deriving feminine from masculine words causes women to be either "linguistically excluded… or else named negatively", while others are bothered by the lack of symmetry.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Such sentiments have sparked numerous attempts at reform, none of which have been accepted by the Akademio de Esperanto.<ref name="PMEGafiks" />

Reforms tend to address a few key areas:

Three specific proposals surface repeatedly, as they derive from the existing resources of the language. These are the masculine suffix *-Template:Lang, workarounds and expanded uses of the epicene prefix Template:Lang-, and the epicene pronoun Template:Lang.

Masculine suffixes

The most popular proposal for a masculine grammatical suffix is *-Template:Lang.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

While preparing his Reformed Esperanto of 1894, Zamenhof considered *-Template:Lang as a masculine grammatical suffix. He considered a male suffix logical but a complication for learners as it was against national customs.<ref name="Esperanto1894">Al la demando pri la reformoj, L. L. Zamenhof, Esperantisto, March 1894, Nº 3 [51], p. 36-39. Collected in Pri Reformoj en Esperanto: Artikoloj Publikigitaj de Dro Zamenhof en la Nurnberga gazeto “Esperantisto” dum la unua duonjaro de 1894, kopiitaj kaj represitaj per zorgo de Dro Emile Javal, Coulommiers Imprimerie Paul Brodard, 1907.</ref> Other proposals have been suggested. Template:Lang was created through ablaut of -Template:Lang. (It is, in fact, the only such possibility, as -Template:Lang, -Template:Lang, and -Template:Lang already exist.) Similarly, *-Template:Lang was created through ablaut of -Template:Lang "person". *-Template:Lang was created by analogy with the pet-name suffix -Template:Lang, the only masculine suffix in the language, so that pet names and the gender suffixes would be symmetrical:

Endearment Gender
Feminine Template:Lang Template:Lang
Masculine Template:Lang Template:Lang

An element common to all such proposals is that the gender-changing nouns are to be reanalyzed as gender neutral when they occur without a gender suffix, as the names of professions and nationalities came to be treated in the mid twentieth century, such as Template:Lang "policeman" → "police officer" and Template:Lang "Englishman" → "English person". This doesn't affect all words: Nouns that never changed gender to begin with, such as Template:Lang "bull", do not take gender suffixes in these reforms either. The resulting paradigms are as follows:

Standard Un-proposal Iĉ-proposal Endearment
Neutral "parent" Template:Lang (plural only) Template:Lang —
Feminine "mother" Template:Lang Template:Lang "mama"
Masculine "father" Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang "papa"

The most common objection to the Template:Lang proposal is the very analysis of words such as "patro" as gender neutral. The reason behind the objection is that the specifically masculine words are defined as such in the Fundamento, and it is felt that reanalyzing them as gender neutral violates the Fundamento. One proposed solution to this problem is to introduce new root words for the gender neutral concepts: parent, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, etc. As an example, the currently neologistic root word Template:Lang<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> (parent) can accept both Template:Lang to denote father and Template:Lang to denote mother.

Though none of these are widespread, Template:Lang has appeared in books published by Jorge Camacho and Luiz Portella.

Proponents of one proposal often claim that a competing proposal is confusing because it resembles an existing suffix, for example that Template:Lang "father" resembles pejorative Template:Lang "a bad father", or that Template:Lang "father" resembles Template:Lang "mother", but there does not seem to be a problem in actual use: With the word stress on the suffix vowel, Template:Lang and Template:Lang are as distinct as many other pairs of Esperanto suffixes, such as Template:Lang. One specific objection to the Template:Lang proposal is that Template:Lang "grandson" is homophonous with Template:Lang, Template:Lang being Esperanto slang for "pussy";<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> on the other hand, Template:Lang would mean not just "a male" but also "the UN".

Epicene prefixes

Various epicene affixes have also been proposed. They may be proposed instead of a masculine suffix—that is, gender derivation remains as in standard Esperanto, but the language gains a simple way of saying "a parent"—or in addition to a masculine suffix, often to avoid confusion between people speaking reformed and standard Esperanto. The only such affix commonly seen is the prefix Template:Lang. In standard Esperanto, Template:Lang means both sexes together, and is normally only seen in the plural. In conversation, however, singular Template:Lang is not uncommonly extended to meanings such as Template:Lang "a parent" when a speaker either doesn't know or doesn't wish to reveal the gender of the noun. Many gender-reform proposals would make such usage official.

Epicene Template:Lang
Without
masculine		 With
masculine
Neutral "parent" Template:Lang
Feminine "mother" Template:Lang
Masculine "father" Template:Lang Template:Lang

People who use Template:Lang for "father" may avoid the unaffixed noun Template:Lang "*parent" altogether as ambiguous, or may use it and switch to Template:Lang only when they need to disambiguate.

Treatment of gendered words

Many of these proposals propose that all gender-changing words such as Template:Lang become neutral once a masculine suffix is in use, with the only remaining gendered words being those such as Template:Lang and Template:Lang that never changed gender to begin with. However, since Template:Lang has numerous masculine uses, and there are already dedicated words for the neutral and feminine equivalents (Template:Lang "adult" or Template:Lang "grownup", and Template:Lang "woman"<ref>Included in recent editions of the Plena Ilustrita Vortaro. Template:Lang is occasionally back-formed to Template:Lang.</ref>), Template:Lang is also commonly retained as a masculine root.

The word Template:Lang "eunuch" has through back-formation given rise to the suffix Template:Lang for castrated people or animals, creating forms such as Template:Lang "steer", from Template:Lang "cattle", to replace Template:Lang "steer", though Template:Lang "ex-" is sometimes seen in this context: Template:Lang "castrated cat" (lit. "ex-man-cat") vs. Template:Lang.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Gender-neutral pronouns

As in English, Esperanto has a personal pronoun for "he", Template:Lang, and "she", Template:Lang. Paraphrasing Template:Lang "he or she" to avoid mentioning gender is, as in English, considered awkward, exclusive, and is avoided in conversation and literature.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> There are two general approaches to resolving this issue: modifying an existing pronoun, and creating a new pronoun.

Extending the range of an existing pronoun

The existing third-person pronouns are Template:Lang "he" (the pronoun traditionally used when gender is not known<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>), Template:Lang "she", Template:Lang "it", Template:Lang "they", Template:Lang "one", Template:Lang (reflexive), Template:Lang "that one".

Template:Lang is used principally with animals and objects. Zamenhof also prescribed it to be the epicene pronoun for people when the gender of an individual is unknown, saying it was "completely correct grammatically".<ref>Respondo 23, La Revuo, 1901, Aŭgusto</ref> He most often used it for children, but also for adults with known gender:

Template:Lang "the child is crying, because it wants to eat".
Template:Lang "They are the lord of our place, lord viscount of ..."<ref>L. L. Zamenhof (1909) El komedioj. Fragmentoj el "La revizoro" de Gogol kaj el "Georgo Dandin" de Molière. Berlin.</ref>

The idea that Template:Lang cannot be used for people is due to its use as a neuter pronoun. In Zamenhof's day it was customary to specify gender whenever it was known . A shift from Template:Lang and Template:Lang to Template:Lang would thus be a stylistic extension similar to the ongoing shift from copula-plus-adjective to verb (such as Template:Lang for Template:Lang), and nothing so radical as the creation of a new pronoun would be required.

However, when gender becomes a problem it is much more common for people to use the demonstrative adjective and pronoun Template:Lang (that one) as a work-around. Unfortunately, this remedy is not always available. For example, in the sentence,

Template:Lang "Someone just said that he is hungry",

the pronoun Template:Lang cannot easily be replaced with Template:Lang, as that would normally be understood to refer to someone other than the person speaking:

Template:Lang "Someone just said that that person is hungry".

Similar problems of confusion arise with trying to use Template:Lang "one" in such situations:

Template:Lang "Someone just said that one is hungry".

This could be used to express deference or other forms of indirectness, but would not be understood to refer to the person who made the statement.

It would be possible to extend the use of reflexive pronoun Template:Lang, which officially cannot occur in subject position, to that of a logophoric pronoun:

Template:Lang "Someone just said that himself/herself is hungry".

Although not a full solution, as Template:Lang refers to a previously mentioned person, this could be used in combination with Template:Lang to introduce a subject. It also has the advantage of clarifying the sentence, since it is ambiguous in standard Esperanto whether Template:Lang "he" refers to the someone who is speaking, or someone else. However, logophoric pronouns are alien to European languages, and this solution is rare.

Due to English influence, singular "they" has been reportedTemplate:Citation needed:

Template:Lang "Someone just said that they are hungry."

However this causes problems regarding Esperanto’s noun agreements and is not readily accepted by people of other language backgrounds.

A proposal is to hyphenate Template:Lang (he) and Template:Lang (she) to Template:Lang or Template:Lang, similar to some other constructs in Esperanto, such as Template:Lang (more or less).

New pronouns

Template:Main

Existing Esperanto personal pronouns end in i, and only two proposals for a new pronoun are at all common: Template:Lang and the blend Template:Lang.

As of 2019, Template:Lang is the most popular gender-neutral pronoun proposal.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Another proposal is the blend Template:Lang, the reading pronunciation of the abbreviation Template:Lang "s/he". It is frequently seen in informal writing.

Gender-neutral pronoun proposals
Type Traditional ri generic ri ĝi ŝli
Epicene Template:Lang<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang
Masculine Template:Lang Template:Lang
Feminine Template:Lang Template:Lang
Neuter Template:Lang
Plural Template:Lang

Gender in plural pronouns

In addition to removing gender from the singular pronouns, proposals have also been made to add gender to the plural in order to better translate material (such as the Bible) that was written in a language that has plural gender.

Due to the symmetry between Template:Lang "he" and ili "they", the obvious choice is to make Template:Lang masculine and to create an analogous feminine form, Template:Lang. This was proposed by Kálmán Kalocsay and Gaston Waringhien in the third edition of their Plena Gramatiko de Esperanto (pp 72–73, note 1). They cited the biblical passage Matthew 28:10-11:

Template:Lang
"Then Jesus said to them [the women], “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee. They will see me there.” While they were going, ..."

It is obvious from context that "They will see me there" refers to the brothers. However, the identity of the "they" in "While they were going" is completely opaque. Kalocsay and Waringhien proposed the following solution:

Template:Lang

See also

References

Template:Reflist

eo:Seksneŭtrala homa triapersona pronomo es:Riismo fr:Riisme ko:리이스모

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