Gender neutral language in Swedish/en: Difference between revisions

The Swedish language has two grammatical genders, common (en-words, previously feminine and masculine but they are now merged) and neuter (ett-words). Swedish has thus been more adaptable to gender-neutral (or gender inclusive) expressions than languages with rigid feminine/masculine distinctions.

* Choosing inclusive nouns: ''Vuxen'' (adult) instead of ''man'' (man) or ''kvinna'' (woman).

Gender-neutral language is not only a useful and necessary 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.

To refer to people in general in Swedish, the pronouns "man/en/en" (one/one/one’s) or "en/en/ens" (one/one/one’s) can be used. Swedish’s generic pronoun man/en/ens has been discussed for being male-generalizing, and some people have opted to use en/en/ens instead to make it gender neutral. Even though the word "man" is in modern times specifically associated with and viewed as for male people specifically, does also have the etymological meaning of "human" in addition to the meaning "male person". Although in the use of -man as a suffix, it is usually replaced with -kvinna (-woman) for women because it isn't seen as or used as a synonym for human anymore, but it is specifically ingrained and established as male, but as a generic pronoun it's not necessarily viewed that way. Using "en" instead of "man" can be seen as more gender-inclusivity through being non-male-generalizing, and it is also frequently practiced in some of Sweden's regions, so it is a natural grammatical dialect variation in the Swedish language, but can make some common sentences awkward and is not universally recognized. Either one is fine though. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221102131452/https://www4.isof.se/cgi-bin/srfl/visasvar.py?sok=man&svar=78373&log_id=909986]

While the abrahamic God is normally referred to with masculine pronouns even in Swedish, some might opt for using non-gendered words instead as to not apply human concepts to God. To do that one can instead just say "Gud" (God) instead of a pronoun, or the pronoun "de" (typically plural they, is sometimes used as singular they, but using it as plural might seem fitting for a trinity) or "hen" (gender-neutral singular they). The latter (*two, but especially the latter hen) might be controversial depending on who one asks.

'''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. 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 people opt not to have any single specific gendered person-nouns for intersex people.

'''Note 2:''' "Enby", and by extension "enban", stem from the abbreviation of nonbinary – "NB" (/en-bee/). Enby is the nonbinary equivalent of the words "girl" and "boy", and enban is the nonbinary equivalent of the words "woman" and "man". Many nonbinary adults do however call themselves "enby".

'''Note 3:''' "Enby" and "enban" are not standardized words in Swedish, but are loanwords from English to fill the gap of nonbinary inclusive language.

'''Note 5:''' The descriptive adjectives can be used instead of the specific people nouns as to not nounify attributes and descriptive characteristics (such as age) that one deems to be misplaced as prescriptive or identifying nouns.

*'''Livspartner, platonisk livspartner.''' Neutral. Means lifepartner and platonic lifepartner.

*'''Gemål/äktenskaplig partner/gift partner.''' Neutral, formal, little use/standard. Means wedded spouse.

*'''Förtrollare/trollkonstnär/förhäxare/häxkonstnär/magiker.''' Neutral. Means enchanter/enchantment artist/bewitcher/witchcrafter/witchcraft artist/magician and can be used as non-male-generalizing alternatives for "trollkarl" (magic/enchanter-man, warlock/wizard). They can also be used to avoid the feminine connotations to "häxa" (witch), even though it can be seen as a gender-neutral word in itself.