Secondary World Gendered Language Idea
Sep. 29th, 2018 10:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrBased on a dream, after trying to get my head around Chinese and Japanese name usage, and vaguely inspired by Stars In My Pocket Like Grains Of Sand.
A society doesn't gender anyone by default, in formal language. Gendered terms like "she" or "daughter" exist, but are only used for someone the speaker is on close personal terms with. Using gendered words/pronouns for someone is vaguely equivalent to using someone's given name in Japanese, switching to informal pronouns in German/French etc. Except without the "you can refer to subordinates informally" thing.
Or maybe with that, depending on whether you want to make a less ungendered society or one that's just as gendered as ours but in a different way.
Because I found the ungenderedness of the Radch interesting but the idea of No-one Having Gender made me a bit dysphoric, and I've been pondering how you could have a society that doesn't gender by default but still HAS gender.
It's possible I've seen this elsewhere and forgot!
EDIT: Comments have made me realise I was being a bit lazy with my thinking. There's really two related ideas here:
1) a language where gendered terms are only used for those you're close to etc.
2) a society where people are not treated as having any particular gender unless you're close to them etc.
A society like 2 would plausibly use a language like 1 (or a language that doesn't gender anyone at all), but a language like 1 would not necessarily imply a society like 2.
A society doesn't gender anyone by default, in formal language. Gendered terms like "she" or "daughter" exist, but are only used for someone the speaker is on close personal terms with. Using gendered words/pronouns for someone is vaguely equivalent to using someone's given name in Japanese, switching to informal pronouns in German/French etc. Except without the "you can refer to subordinates informally" thing.
Or maybe with that, depending on whether you want to make a less ungendered society or one that's just as gendered as ours but in a different way.
Because I found the ungenderedness of the Radch interesting but the idea of No-one Having Gender made me a bit dysphoric, and I've been pondering how you could have a society that doesn't gender by default but still HAS gender.
It's possible I've seen this elsewhere and forgot!
EDIT: Comments have made me realise I was being a bit lazy with my thinking. There's really two related ideas here:
1) a language where gendered terms are only used for those you're close to etc.
2) a society where people are not treated as having any particular gender unless you're close to them etc.
A society like 2 would plausibly use a language like 1 (or a language that doesn't gender anyone at all), but a language like 1 would not necessarily imply a society like 2.
no subject
Date: 2018-09-29 01:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-09-29 01:42 pm (UTC)I was talking about my own experience as a trans person in Finland as opposed to here in Australia. I think I'm entitled to do that. But whatever.
no subject
Date: 2018-09-29 01:51 pm (UTC)Oh I'm sorry! Yes I can definitely see how that would have been a good experience. I thought you were making a comment on Finnish society in general, I apologise for misunderstanding.
no subject
Date: 2018-09-30 04:14 am (UTC)Insofar as it might relate to Finnish society, all I have to go on is the theory that words shape thought. You might not think so much about gender if your language was not very gendered. So I thought that the way I was treated in Finland could relate to their language. That's as far as I can go with it; it's not like I've studied the subject.