Glossary of Hindi gender and sex terminology

Revision as of 06:20, 1 March 2021 by imported>NBHindileftist (I added two ways for non-binary people who speak Hindi to be able to speak Hindi without having to misgender themselves.)
Glossaries in other languages

This page lists Hindi terms related to gender and sex. They are sorted according to the Latin transcription in alphabetical order.

Hindi Latin transcription English translation or explanation
लिंग Ling Gender
उभयलिंगी ubhayalingii Androgyny, this word is used for a wide variety of gender nonconforming and non-binary gender identities and gender expressions.
बाइनरी bainarii Binary, a gender identity that fits neatly into only one of the two genders in a gender binary system. (the Hindi language also uses it for bisexuality.)
बुच buc Butch. A masculine gender identity or expression, which some see as a non-binary gender.
अंडकोश निकालना andkosh nikalnaa Emasculation, a surgery to take away the penis and testicles.
लिंग पहचान ling pahachaan Gender identity, "An individual’s internal sense of gender, which may or may not be the same as one’s gender assigned at birth." Most people identify as the gender that they were assigned at birth. They are described as 'cisgender' by the transgender community, who do not identify with their assigned birth genders.
ट्रांसजेंडर traansjendar Transgender, an umbrella term for those with gender identities that don't match the genders they were assigned at birth.
ट्रांससेक्सुअल Ṭrānsasēksu'al Transsexual, a kind of transgender person who wants to physically transition to a different gender than they were assigned at birth.
समलैंगिक samlaingik Is used to refer to a gay, lesbian or a drag king/queen.
नॉन बाइनरी non bainarii Nonbinary, an umbrella term for all who don't identify as just female or male. Though there are many kinds of nonbinary gender identities, some people identify as "nonbinary" only.

Hindi has 2 grammatical genders, male and female, which affect verb conjugation. This is obviously problematic for some non-binary people, as some non-binary people feel uncomfortable using either male or female grammatical verb conjugation for themselves. There have been 2 solutions proposed to this.


The first one is to use the male plural/respectful conjugation, as the male plural/respectful conjugation is also used for group of people that consists of multiple genders. Thus, the sentence "I am eating rice", can be said as "मैं चावल खा रहे हूँ" (main chaawal khaa rahe huun, or /mɛ̃ː t͡ʃɑː.ʋəl kʰɑː ɾəɦeː ɦũː/ in IPA) instead of मैं चावल खा रहा हूँ (main chaawal khaa rahaa huun or /mɛ̃ː t͡ʃɑː.ʋəl kʰɑː ɾəɦɑː ɦũː/) or मैं चावल खा रही हूँ (main chaawal khaa rahii huun or /mɛ̃ː t͡ʃɑː.ʋəl kʰɑː ɾəɦiː ɦũː/)


The second one is to create an entirely new set of conjugation to accommodate the language for non-binary people. One way of making the grammar adapt is to use the vowel 'उ' for one non-binary person when talking in a non-respectful way, and to use the vowel 'ऊ' for multiple non-binary people or when referring to a non-binary person in a respectful way .The way that verbs would be conjugated according to this new conjugation would mean that endings like -ता/-ती would become -तु for non-binary people and endings like -ते/तींं would become -तू for non-binary people. Likewise, सकता/सकती would become सकतु and सकते/सकतीं become सकतू. This also means that रहा/रही would become रहु and रहे/रहीं becomes रहू.

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