Pronouns: Difference between revisions
→Chinese neutral pronouns: (Source: I will add later but I am a Chinese Native Speaker) Added some Ancient Chinese pronouns
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==Chinese neutral pronouns== | ==Chinese neutral pronouns== | ||
Gender-neutral pronouns in Mandarin Chinese (普通话) include: | Gender-neutral pronouns in Mandarin Chinese (普通话) include: | ||
'''tā/ta1''' is the standard pronoun for people, which when pronounced aloud is gender-neutral. Before the language was influenced by Europeans, "他" was the proper way of rendering "tā" (regardless of gender); with the radical "亻" (a variant of "人") meaning "person" and "也" meaning "other" (i.e. "another person, neither me nor you"). Under European influence, the character "她" was invented, to mean "she" ("女"=female + "也"=other). Therefore, "他" more and more acquired the gender-specific meaning "he", with the consequence that nowadays neither "他" nor "她" are perceived as gender-neutral. Another written form of tā is "它" meaning "it," but this can be derogatory, so only use it for a person with their permission. Similarly, tā 牠 is a pronoun "used for non-human animals | '''tā/ta1''' is the standard pronoun for people, which when pronounced aloud is gender-neutral. Before the language was influenced by Europeans, "他" was the proper way of rendering "tā" (regardless of gender); with the radical "亻" (a variant of "人") meaning "person" and "也" meaning "other" (i.e. "another person, neither me nor you"). Under European influence, the character "她" was invented, to mean "she" ("女"=female + "也"=other). Therefore, "他" more and more acquired the gender-specific meaning "he", with the consequence that nowadays neither "他" nor "她" are perceived as gender-neutral. Another written form of tā is "它" meaning "it," but this can be derogatory, so only use it for a person with their permission. Similarly, tā 牠 is a pronoun "used for non-human animals", <ref name="rabbitglitter ML pronouns"></ref> and tā 祂 is usually used for gods. | ||
As the logical gender-neutral character is "他" ("亻" meaning "person"), one solution would be to use a character composed of "男"("male") and "也" to mean "he", which would make it evident that "他" used in the same text can only be meant in a gender-neutral way. However, as Unicode does not provide "男"+"也" as a single character, this is currently only possible in handwriting. | As the logical gender-neutral character is "他" ("亻" meaning "person"), one solution would be to use a character composed of "男"("male") and "也" to mean "he", which would make it evident that "他" used in the same text can only be meant in a gender-neutral way. However, as Unicode does not provide "男"+"也" as a single character, this is currently only possible in handwriting. | ||
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'''keúih/keoi5 佢''' meaning "them/him/her/it" | '''keúih/keoi5 佢''' meaning "them/him/her/it" | ||
Ancient Chinese texts use more pronouns that are not gender specific to refer to other people, for example '''bǐ/bi3 彼''' , '''qí/qi2 其''' , and '''zhī/zhi1 之'''. Among the less used are the pronouns '''qú/qu2 渠''' and '''jué/jue2 厥''', which are not gender specific either. Despite the word 她 being reappropriated as a feminine pronoun by Liu Bannong in his poems, Ancient Chinese people also used a pronoun that is feminine called '''yī/yi1 伊''', exemplified in Lu Xun's works. However, some Ancient Chinese scholars argue that due to the difference of modern and ancient Chinese grammar, the use of these words as pronouns might not be the same as contemporary pronouns. | |||
Gender-neutral ways of referring to others in Chinese language (中文) include: | |||
'''na4ge4ren2 (traditional: 那個人) (simplified: 那个人)''' means "that person."<ref name="rabbitglitter ML pronouns" /> | |||
'''zhe4ge4ren2 (traditional: 這個人) (simplified: 这个人)''' means "this person."<ref name="rabbitglitter ML pronouns" /> | |||
==Czech neutral pronouns== | ==Czech neutral pronouns== | ||