this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2023

-12 points (33.3% liked)

Ask Lemmy

26280 readers

1436 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Rules: (interactive)

1) Be nice and; have fun

Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them

2) All posts must end with a '?'

This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?

3) No spam

Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.

4) NSFW is okay, within reason

Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected]. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].

5) This is not a support community.

It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.

Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

-12

Custom pronouns in other languages (lemmy.my.id)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/asklemmy

8 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Where can I find translation of US custom pronouns to other languages? Thanks

all 9 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Depends heavily on the languages because it's not like there's just English and then all other languages.

I think it's Swedish that has a universal third person pronoun, so it's already implemented there. Germanic languages are probably similar to English in that the most familiar option is to use singular "they". Spanish uses "elle"/"su" as gender-neutral they/their. Korean doesn't distinguish gender in third person pronouns at all, and neither does spoken Chinese (Mandarin at least, but probably most or all dialects).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Thanks

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

There's no real consensus on translating neopronouns, so different translation approaches are used depending on the needs of the translation and its target language. It's a good idea in any case to provide translation notes or glosses for anything that might get lost in translation.

What I'd personally recommend is this:

When writing about a real person, ask yourself:

Can I ask this person for translation recommendations?
If yes, translate according to the recommendations.
If no, does this person also go by pronouns which are easier to translate?
If yes, use those pronouns instead of the neopronouns.
If no, use the "default" gender-neutral terms of the target language.

When writing about a fictional character, ask yourself:

Can I ask the original author for translation recommendations?
If yes, translate according to the recommendations.
If no, use whatever feels right.

Avoiding pronouns entirely, leaving the neopronoun untranslated, or matching the neopronoun with one from the target language, are all translation approaches that may be more appropriate in some situations, but which also present unique challenges for the translator.

[–] kuneho 2 points 11 months ago

in my language we have exactly one pronoun for everyone in 3rd person: ő

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

1 post, 0 comments, fresh account? And you post a question you already know the answer to, just to trigger "both" sides?

Common, this is not the community contribution we need..

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I really don't know. I did notice most have roots in english language "hir" or adding "x", but I can't find it in other languages.

If this is universal, I guess it should have some roots in other languages. I don't want to insult my friends and I'm not comfortable to ask, they might say that I'm "x-fob" for not knowing.

The description of this community is "A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions"

[–] [email protected] -2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

You can't tell me you post isn't bait. Google motherfcker they list neo-pronouns in other languages.

I can speak for German and say:

It doesn't work. It barely works in English, and some people already hate it there.

Basically all European languages and many more have Gender Cases. You would not only have to "invent" a pronouns, but also like 50 different endings and grammatical rules. You could just use one of the existing set endings I, but then the sentence sounds again just male, female or neutral, wich is the exact thing neo-pronouns don't want to do.

And btw., if your "friends" call you names for not knowing such things l, they are not your friends.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago

thanks