Thursday, January 25, 2018

Latinex

Over the last few decades, there have been movements towards neutralizing the binary male-female gender system in Spanish. It has been argued that the use of masculine pronouns and endings for mixed-gender groups of people is sexist, viewing male as the "default" gender. Various suggestions have arisen, including the use of Latin@ instead of Latino or Latina. This solution is visually awkward in written form, and unpronounceable in spoken form.

In recent years, the discussion has broadened to address society's changing views on gender. We are now understanding/acknowledging that gender is a social construct, and is better viewed as a spectrum rather than a binary delineation. With people identifying as transgendered, non-binary gendered, or gender-fluid, the push for a gender-inclusive form has intensified. One option put forth (admittedly more by academics than by the general public) is Latinex (pronounced [la-ti-nEks]. Since Spanish gender applies not only to nouns, but also to articles and adjectives, the "x" ending is extended to the definite articles le and lex and the indefinite article unex. There is some disagreement on the plural vs. adjective forms, but the phrase "the Latina professors" would translate as lex profesorex latinex. [lEks-pro-fe-so-res-la-ti-nEks]

It's not surprising that there are arguments for and against adopting this form. Here are two articles voting in favor of it, but both of them discuss the English usage of the term instead of how it would work in Spanish:


This article does address the grammatical ramifications of its usage in Spanish as well as English:


https://medium.com/@puentera/latino-latinx-latine-a3b19e0dbc1c
  
This article outlines an argument against its use:


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