Gender neutral language in Polish: Difference between revisions

In Polish there is no standard non-gendered pronoun like English's [[singular they]]. "Oni" is the third person plural masculine pronoun (used when a group has at least one male in it, or the genders of the group are unknown), while "one" is the third person plural non-masculine pronoun (used when a group has no male members, or for groups like young children, animals, objects, or intangible concepts).<ref name="cloz_Maki">{{Cite web |title=Making Sense of Polish Personal Pronouns |last=Łukasiak |first=Adam |work=Clozemaster Blog |date=20 October 2017 |access-date=25 November 2020 |url= https://www.clozemaster.com/blog/polish-personal-pronouns/}}</ref> Translations of English singular they into Polish sometimes use "oni" despite it being masculine.<ref name="Misiek">{{cite journal|title=Misgendered in Translation?: Genderqueerness in Polish Translations of English-language Television Series |url=https://anglica-journal.com/resources/html/article/details?id=207730|last=Misiek|first=Szymon |journal=Anglica: An International Journal of English Studies|year=2020 |doi=10.7311/0860-5734.29.2.09}}</ref>

Some Polish-speaking nonbinary people just use "he/his" ("on/jego") or "she/her" ("ona/jej") – either the same as their [[gender assigned at birth]] or the opposite.<ref name="zaimkipl">{{Cite web |title=An overview of Polish nonbinary pronouns |trans-title= |author= |work=Zaimki.pl |date= |access-date=25 November 2020 |url= https://zaimki.pl/english |language=en }}</ref>

Some neopronoun forms have been proposed, such as<ref name="zaim_Skąd">{{Cite web |title=Skąd potrzeba niebinarnych zaimków? |trans-title=Where is the need for nonbinary pronouns? |author= |work=Zaimki.pl |date= |access-date=25 November 2020 |url= https://zaimki.pl/ |language=pl}}</ref>:

The reflexive pronoun "się" (equivalent to "myself", "herself", "himself", "one's self", etc.) does not inflect for gender.<ref>https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Polish_pronouns#Reflexive_pronoun</ref>

Nouns, verbs, numerals, and adjectives are also gendered in Polish. Some Polish nonbinary people create solutions such as gender-neutral word endings, for example "chciałxm"/"chciałom"/"chciałx" instead of "chciałem" (masculine) or "chciałam" (feminine).<ref>{{cite web|title=hi how to use they them in poland. próbuję ale im failing miserably|archive-date=17 June 2020|archive-url=http://archive.is/ZMwts|url=https://urodziwy.tumblr.com/post/187175986471/hi-how-to-use-they-them-in-poland-pr%C3%B3buj%C4%99-ale-im}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Czemu ludzie są Twoim zdaniem dyskryminowani przez swoją orientację seksualną?|archive-url=http://archive.is/k4Xzj|archive-date=17 June 2020|url=https://ask.fm/brainlessxx/answers/162268935811}}</ref> In the 2004 science-fiction novel ''Perfect Imperfection'', author Jacek Dukaj used -um verb endings (e.g. "zobaczyłum" instead of the masculine "zobaczyłem" or feminine "zobaczyłam") for a "post-human" group of beings.<ref name="TransGrysy">{{Cite web |title=TransGrysy wyjaśniają: co robić, a czego nie robić w kontaktach z osobami transpłciowymi? |trans-title=TransGrysy explains: what to do and what not to do when dealing with transgender people? |work=kinkywinky.pl |date= |access-date=1 October 2020 |url= https://www.kinkywinky.pl/blog/poradnik/transplciowosc-savoir-vivre.html |language=pl}}</ref> These have since become known as Dukaisms.<ref name="zaimkipl">{{Cite web |title=An overview of Polish nonbinary pronouns |trans-title= |author= |work=Zaimki.pl |date= |access-date=25 November 2020 |url= https://zaimki.pl/english |language=en }}</ref>

Another gender-neutral way of speaking or writing Polish is rewording phrases to use a non-gendered conjugation of a verb. For example, instead of saying "I saw" in the masculine form "zobaczyłem" or feminine form "zobaczyłam", one could say "Udało mi się zobaczyć" (I was able to see).<ref name="grabieżca">{{Cite web |title=Osoby niebinarne - jakiej są płci? |trans-title= |author=niski_grabieżca |work=transseksualizm.blogspot.com |date=12 June 2019 |access-date=1 October 2020 |url= https://transseksualizm.blogspot.com/2019/06/osoby-niebinarne-jakiej-sa-pci.html |language=pl}}</ref>

For written Polish, it is possible to combine the masculine and feminine forms of a noun, with a space in between the endings to acknowledge other genders. For example instead of the masculine "aktorzy" or the feminine "aktorki", one could write "aktorki_rzy".<ref name="123t_Gend">{{Cite web |title=Gender. Płeć w języku. Feminizm w języku polskim |trans-title=Gender. Gender in language. Feminism in Polish language |last=Tłumaczeń |first=Biuro |work=Ekspresowe tłumaczenia |date=11 December 2015 |access-date=1 October 2020 |url= https://123tlumacz.pl/gender-plec-w-jezyku-feminizm-w-jezyku-polskim/ |language=pl}}</ref>

Words can be de-gendered by using an -ę ending such as "autorzę" (instead of masc "autor" or fem "autorka") but this is not ideal because the -ę ending is considered diminutive and thus can be seen as infantilizing nonbinary people.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Neutratywy: czemu nie końcówka -ę? |author=@andrea |work=zaimki.pl |date=22 February 2022 |access-date=12 October 2022 |url= https://zaimki.pl/blog/neutratywy-zdrobnienia |language=pl}}</ref>

| pretty<ref name="avri_Avri">{{Cite web |title=Genderneutralizacja polszczyzny? |trans-title=Gender-neutralization of the Polish language? |author=Andrea |date=2 February 2020 |access-date=25 November 2020 |url= https://avris.it/blog/genderneutralizacja-polszczyzny |language=pl}}</ref>