Perhaps you have had the experience of learning a foreign language and being surprised to discover that what you had always assumed to be feminine is masculine in another language. Or if your mother tongue makes little distinction regarding gender, you may suddenly find yourself faced with three classes of gender and having to make all the elements of a phrase agree\u2026<\/p>\n
Gender<\/strong> is expressed in different ways and to different degrees across languages. Around one quarter of the world\u2019s languages use grammatical gender. Many factors, such as social and cultural aspects, have influenced how gender is assigned and perceived in language, and changes in society and people\u2019s perceptions have in turn brought about change in language itself.<\/p>\n Genderless languages<\/strong>, such as Finnish and Turkish, where notions of gender are very scarce, usually seen in a few basic lexical pairs, e.g. in Finnish\u00a0sisko<\/em>\/sister vs.\u00a0veli<\/em>\/brother.<\/p>\n Notional gender languages<\/strong>, such as English and Danish, where as well as lexical gender, there is a system of gender-specific pronouns, and specific sets of derivative nouns which distinguish between male and female, e.g. waiter\/waitress.<\/p>\n Grammatical gender languages<\/strong>, such as Spanish and Arabic, where all nouns are classified as either masculine or feminine, or even a third \u201cneuter\u201d class, as in German or Greek. In other languages, other parts of speech, like verbs and adjectives, also carry gender inflections.<\/p>\n These differences may pose issues in translation. A translator may have to translate from a language which uses gender-specific articles or pronouns into a language which does not use gender. The opposite is also true and can also pose problems, that is, translating from a genderless language into a gender-marked language. Confusion may arise if there is a lack of context.<\/p>\n This brings us to the issue of gender bias<\/strong>. When faced with a lack of context, let us say, in a text about a nurse, and there is no indication given about the nurse\u2019s gender, if the target language is gender-marked a decision has to be made about the gender for this word. And such decision will be based on a gender bias rooted in culture and linked to stereotypical assumptions about what is usually associated with men or women. Examples of this are typically seen in jobs. Certain professions have been associated to one gender (nurses and teachers being female; firemen and doctors being male).<\/p>\n Society has changed and as equality between the sexes is being fought for, this has been reflected in language. Gender-neutral terms have been sought for several professions (flight attendant instead of air hostess, firefighter instead of fireman, among many others). More care is taken when writing official texts so as to remove any traces of sexual discrimination.<\/p>\n Work is still in progress to reduce gender bias in translation tools<\/strong>. When such tools first came into use, gender-related issues quickly came to light. In their early stages, the data the tools were drawing from was limited. The texts which formed their base reflected a reality in society which was gender-biased and therefore so were the translations produced. As improvements have been made, more data has been included, improved features for detecting gender have been incorporated and more than one translation can be provided. Instead of simply \u201che is a doctor\u201d we are offered \u201che\/she is a doctor\u201d or the two alternatives separately.<\/p>\n If you\u2019d like to keep on reading about this topic, here are two links you might find useful:<\/p>\n Rebecca Willems\u2019 article on \u201cHow Language Fuels Gender Inequality \u2013 And what to do about it<\/a>\u201d presents some interesting insight on how the expressions we use reflect gender inequality, sometimes in ways we don\u2019t even perceive.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s another very interesting resource: A guide by Barcelona\u2019s Town Council<\/a> encouraging a non-sexist use of language.<\/p>\n Language is a powerful tool, and the power is in our choice of words when we speak, write and translate. It is in our hands to reduce discrimination, inequality and stereotypes and contribute to a fairer, more equal society.<\/p>\n Header image by by Sharon McCutcheon<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Perhaps you have had the experience of learning a foreign language and being surprised to discover that what you had always assumed to be feminine is masculine in another language. Or if your mother tongue makes little distinction regarding gender, you may suddenly find yourself faced with three classes of gender and having to make<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4611,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uebersetzung"],"yoast_head":"\nThree categories of languages regarding gender<\/h5>\n
Issues in translation<\/h5>\n
I want to know more about gender bias in language<\/h5>\n