Inclusive Language in English
In English, there is a difference between “grammatical gender”, “gender as a social construct” (which refers to the roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a given society at a certain time considers appropriate for men or women) and “sex” as a biological characteristic of living beings. There are many reasons to care about truly inclusive language, the most important being that non-binary people exist and deserve to be acknowledged. For translators and interpreters, there is another reason: we have a responsibility to honor the true meaning of the source, something we take very seriously at CCI Group.
Tips and Strategies
English has very few gender markers: the pronouns and possessives (he, she, her, and his); and some nouns and forms of address. Most English nouns do not have grammatical gender forms (teacher, president), whereas a few nouns are specifically masculine or feminine (actor/actress, waiter/waitress). Some nouns that once ended in -man now have neutral equivalents that are used to include both genders (police officer for policeman/policewoman, spokesperson for spokesman, chair/chairperson for chairman).
Here are some recommendations by the United Nations on how to be inclusive in English:
Use non-discriminatory language
When referring to or addressing specific individuals, use forms of address and pronouns that are consistent with their gender identity. Also, avoid gender-biased expressions or expressions that reinforce gender stereotypes (She runs like a girl).
Make gender visible when it is relevant for communication
“Pairing” is the use of both feminine and masculine forms (he or she; her or his). It is a strategy that may be used when the author/speaker wants to explicitly make both women and men visible. It is advisable not to overuse this strategy in English, however, as it may be distracting to the reader.
However, this is a binary approach to inclusive language which does not consider non-binary people. A non-binary person (i.e., someone who doesn’t identify as solely male or solely female—perhaps the person identifies as a mix of the two, as neither, or as something else entirely) cannot be referred to as “he or she,” or by any other binary inclusive construction.
Use of the singular ‘they’ has become a common way to address an unknown, or known non-binary individual. The difficulties arising from the use of a single ‘they’ from a grammatical perspective, are that although ‘they’ refers to a single individual, it could also be perceived as referring to multiples – for example, if someone says ‘they walked into a bar’, we cannot be sure if they are referring to one person or a group.
Do not make the gender visible when it is not relevant for communication
This strategy is a non-binary approach to inclusive language. Here are some ideas to be more inclusive in English:
- Use gender-neutral words (i.e. humanity instead of mankind).
- Use plural pronouns (they/them): In informal writing, such as emails, plural pronouns may be used as a shortcut to ensure gender inclusiveness. Such strategies are not recommended in formal writing.
- Use the pronoun one
- Use the relative pronoun who
- Omit the gendered word
- Use the passive voice
Translation Challenges when using Inclusive Language
It is easy enough to use inclusive language in English, but not all languages are like this. Almost half of all languages are gendered, meaning that every noun has grammatical gender, and adjectives and verbs change according to the gender of the noun.
For instance, grammatical gender in Spanish affects several types of words (and their mutual agreement) which have inflection in the Spanish language according to grammatical gender: nouns, adjectives, determiners, and pronouns.
All Spanish nouns have lexical gender, either masculine or feminine, and most nouns referring to male humans or animals are grammatically masculine, while most referring to females are feminine. Furthermore, Spanish personal pronouns also uniquely distinguish feminine forms of the first and second person plural (nosotras, vosotras).
In our next article, we will write about tips to overcome these challenges when trying to be inclusive in our translations. In the meantime, check out which translation and interpreting solutions CCI Group has to offer!
