Gender neutral language in Swedish: Difference between revisions

* Reforming job titles: ''Brandbekämpare'' (firefighter) instead of ''brandman'' (literally “fireman”), and ''sjukskötare'' (caregiver/nurse) instead of ''sjuksköterska'' (traditionally “female nurse”).<!--T:151-->

The goal of gender-neutral language is to foster equality and inclusion for all individuals, regardless of gender. It helps reduce the risk of misgendering, which can cause discomfort or distress – particularly for people who experience gender dysphoria or who do not identify within the traditional gender binary.

Gender-neutral language is not only a useful and necessar grammatical tool but also a social one. It is especially important in contexts where gender is varied/queer, mixed/diverse in a group, irrelevant/unwanted, secret or unknown. By adopting inclusive language, we create environments that respect and acknowledge everyone.<!--T:147-->

<translate><!--T:4--> Swedish’s official gender-neutral pronoun is hen/hen/hens. The Swedish common-inanimate pronoun den/den/dens (equivalent to it/it/its) is also used for gender-neutral language and by some nonbinary people. Singular de/dem/deras[https://transformering.se/vad-ar-trans/pronomen] (they/them/their) can often be used as a gender-neutral pronoun without it sounding weird, even though it is not commonly recognized or documented for being able to do so. If de/dem/deras is used in singular, the numeral conjugations of other words could be in singular as well (with regards to it not being common practice). Some nonbinary people have also opted for neopronouns such as hin/hin/hins [https://svenska.se/so/?id=130633][https://sv.wiktionary.org/wiki/hin][https://www.mjolby.se/uppleva-och-gora/fritidsgardar/queerious/ordlista---queerious][https://transformering.se/vad-ar-trans/pronomen], which is actually not a new pronoun but an obsolete pronoun (archaeopronoun) that means something alike “that one”, but is in modern times pretty much only used in the set phrase “hin håle” (the hard one, the devil). </translate>

<translate><!--T:183--> '''Note 1:''' The words "enby" and "enban" were made for nonbinary people specifically, but could be used by nonbinary intersex people who identify with it. They can also be used by parents for their intersex children "if" the child expresses an identification with not being specifially a girl or a boy and wants to use those words. These words are, however, not condoned by everyone since they do reinforce gendering, but it's important to remember that words like "girl", "boy" and "enby" are gendered nouns, while endosex, intersex, female and male is about biological sex and should be used as descriptors for such, thus no specific gendered person-noun for intersex people.

*'''Tvilling, enäggstvilling, tvåäggstvilling, trilling, fyrling, femling.''' Neutral, standard. Means twin/one-egg twins/two-eggs twins, triplet, quadruplet, quintuplet.

*'''Henvän.''' Nonstandard, means "theyfriend" and can be used as a non-binary alternative to "flickvän" (girlfriend) and "pojkvän" (boyfriend).

*'''Ärade/kära/goda publik/gäster/vänner/(gott) folk. Damer, herrar och icke-binära.''' Neutral, inclusive, standard. Gender-inclusive alternatives to “ladies & gentlemen”.

*'''Snuppa, venis.''' Neutral, nonstandard innovative words for ambiguous genitalia for intersex people, "snuppa" is a combination of "snippa" (juvenile word for vagina) and "snopp/snupp" (juvenile word for penis/colliqual juvenile word for penis), and "venis" is a combination of "vagina" and "penis".

*Justeringsman → Justerare