Gender-Inclusive Language in Spanish
Gender-Inclusive Language in Spanish
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Leticia Fernández-Fontecha
Abstract
Abstract
The Spanish language features a morphological gender binary marked by the suffixal morpheme -o for the masculine gender (e.g. carro ‘car’), and -a for the feminine (e.g. casa ‘house’). The constraints of this system presents very few possibilities to recognize human subjects that don’t identify within the biological masculine-feminine construct, and there is no morphological marker not assigned to one of the extant grammatical genders (Harris 1991). Still, a number of innovations in morphological gender have appeared in the speech of genderqueer speakers, such as suffixal -x (latinx ‘Latin’), suffixal -e (latine ‘Latin’), and the pronoun elle ‘they’ (Diz Pico 2017; Group Anarquista Pirexia 2011). These forms have yet to be the subject of empirical research, nor are they currently championed by any official language institution, which would afford them considerable legitimacy (Lara Icaza 2014). The aim of this project is to promote discussion on some linguistic and pedagogical issues around the use of gender inclusive language in Spanish while offering a handout to students and teachers to help them make decisions about using gendered language in their writing and speaking, in order to become aware of language change in real time concerning the use of morphosyntactic choices that seek to embrace gender equality, diversity, representation, and diversity.
Below you can find a downloadable simple guide to learn more about this project and a printable version of the poster.
Gender-Inclusive Language in Spanish- A Simple Guide by L. Fernández-Fontecha.pdfGENDER INCLUSIVE PDF.pdfCited Works
Cited Works
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