Gender neutral language in Swedish: Difference between revisions

<translate><!--T:1--> The Swedish language has two grammatical genders, common and neuter. Swedish is easier than gender neutral language (also called gender inclusive language) in many other languages, because its grammatical gender is less pervasive than in languages like German or French. See the main article on gender neutral language for general reasons to use neutral language, common problems in using it, and its use for nonbinary people.</translate>

<translate><!--T:20--> 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 androcentric, and some people have opted to use en/en/ens instead to make it gender inclusive. The word "man" may have the meaning of "human" in addition to the meaning "male person", but this word is still more associated with male people. Using "en" instead of "man" is not only more gender-inclusivity through being non-male-generalizing, but it is also frequently practiced in some of Sweden's regions, so it is a natural grammatical dialect variation in the Swedish language. </translate>

<translate><!--T:25--> In older Swedish, titles/phrases based on one's gender have been used to mention/adress someone with politeness/formality i.e. fru, fröken, dam, herr, mister etc. This has also been used in front of profession titles, e.g. fru/herr Minister. This is rather an obsolete practice and is only used in a few select cases. In modern Swedish, when mentioning or adressing someone more formally, one should instead use both first name and last name or only last name without any title. An innovative option could be to use only the first name's initial and then the last name. Another innovative option would be to use formal plural forms with a capital letter, e.g. ”Tack Ni minister!” (Thank You minister!), ”Hej! Ni Andersson.” (Hi! You Andersson.), ”Låt De minister tala till punkt.” (Let They minister speak.), ”De Andersson har godkänt begäran.” (They Andersson have accepted the request.). In addition, you can use words such as "sällskapet" (the company) if you want to be polite regarding a person's companion.

<translate><!--T:27--> The adjective conjugation for things in the singular definite form has historically had two inflections in Swedish, the a-form (Feminine: den glad<u>a</u> flickan. Neutral: det glad<u>a</u> barnet) and the e-form (Masculine: den glad<u>e</u> pojken). The e-form is not frequently used today, but it is still worth mentioning that the a-form is the standard in modern Swedish as masculine and feminine grammatical gender are no longer separated, and by using only the a-form, the language becomes more gender-neutral and continuous.

*'''Medföräldern.''' Neutral, formal, standard. Means co-parent. This term can be used gender-inclusive, but it's a matter of preference for each individual. Some people do not want to be gendered, some do, what the person sees as most appropriate should be respected.

*'''Gravida/Gravida personer.''' Neutral, formal, standard. Means pregnant people. This term can be used instead of "pregnant women" as a gender-inclusive term, but it's a matter of preference for each individual, some people do not want to be gendered, some do, what the person sees as most appropriate should be respected.

*'''Födande föräldern/gravida föräldern.''' Neutral, formal, standard. Means "birthing parent/pregnant parent". This term can be used instead of "the mother" as a gender-inclusive term but also without designating a parental status for surrogates, but it's a matter of preference for each individual, some people do not want to be gendered, some do, what the person sees as most appropriate should be respected.

*'''Förförälder.''' Neutral, nonstandard but will be understood. Means grandparent. Förförälder can be used both as a collective word for grandparents, but also to designate a parent's parent as gender-neutral. Förföräldrar also serves as an alternative word to förfäder (forefathers). Förförälder is not included in modern dictionaries, but förföräldrar are mentioned in SAOB (The Swedish Academy's dictionary).

*'''Förför.''' Neutral, nonstandard. Means grandy/grandma/grandpa. Förför ought to be pronounced with "short ö:s" to not confuse it with the word "förför" which means "seduce" (which is pronounced with s short first ö and long second ö). Förför is an alternative that fits well together in the pattern of mormor (maternal mother, standard), farmor (paternal mother, standard), morfar (maternal father, standard) and farfar (paternal father, standard).

*'''Gemene folk/personer/människor.''' Neutral, will be understood. Means "people/persons/humans in general" and can be used as non-androgeneralizing alternatives for "gemene man" (common man).

*'''Lekperson/Lekfolk.''' Neutral, standard. Means layperson/laypeople and can be used as a non-androgeneralizing alternative for "lekman/lekmän" (layman/laymen).

*'''Vännen.''' Neutral, standard. Means "the friend" but can be used as a gender-neutral alternativ to gumma respektive gubbe, which are juvenile terms alike English's buddy/kid. (While gumma and gubbe can be used in a juvenile way, they also mean old-woman and old-man respectively)

*'''Allesrätt.''' Neutral, nonstandard. Neutral non-androgeneralizing alternative for "allemansrätt" ("all-man's-right", right of public access)

*'''Arbetsstyrka/Arbetskraft, teamstyrka/lagstyrka, personalstyrka.''' Means workforce-team/staff/crew strength/force/power and can be used as non-androgeneralizing alternatives for "manstyrka" (man power).

*'''Besättning/Personal/Rekrytering-Personalbesättning.''' Neutral, standard-nonstandard. Means staff/crew/recuitment and can be used as non-androgeneralizing alternatives for bemanning ("manning").

*'''Elvaspelsplan.''' Neutral, standard. Means eleven-payers-field and can be used as a non-androgeneralizing alternative for "elvamannaplan" (eleven-man's-field).

* '''Enpersonsjobb.''' Neutral, will be understood. Means one-person's-jobb and can be used as a non-androgeneralizing alternative for "enmansjobb" (one-man's-job).

* '''Förtrollare/Trollkonstnär/Förhäxare/Häxkonstnär/Magiker.''' Neutral. Means enchanter/enchantment artist/bewitcher/witchcrafter-witchcraft artist/magician and can be used as non-androgeneralizing alternatives for "trollkarl" (magic/enchanter-man, warlock/wizard). They can also be used to avoid the feminine connotation to häxa (witch).

* '''Huskost/Hushållskost.''' Neutral, will be understood. Means house/household-diet/cuisine (traditional home cooked food) and can be used as a non-androgeneralizing alternative for "husmanskost" (house-man's-diet/cuisine).

* '''Härskarvälde.''' Neutral, standard. Means reign/rulerreign/rulership and can be use as a non-androcentric alternative to "herravälde" ("male-"lordreign).

* '''Karaktär.''' Neutral, standard. Means character/playing-character and can be used as non-androgeneralizing alternatives for "spelgubbe/gubbe" (playing-man/man).

* '''LEGO-figur/LEGO-minifigur.''' Neutral, standard. Means LEGO-figure/LEGO-minifigure and can be used as a non-androgeneralizing alternative for "LEGO-gubbe" (LEGO-man).

*'''Polttare.''' Neutral, semi-standard loanword from Finnish. Means bach party and can be used as a gender-neutral alternative to bachelorette party and bachelor party.

*'''Rojal.''' Neutral, will be understood. Means royal and can be used as a non-androgeneralizing alternative for "kunglig" (meaning royal but is formed like "kingly").

*'''Snöfigur/Snövän/Snöperson.''' Neutral, will be unserstood. Means snowfigure/snowfriend/snowperson and can be used as non-androgeneralizing alternatives for "snögubbe" (snowman).