Tag: La E neutral

dasakuryo:

legallynonbinary:

dasakuryo:

latinextra:

curles:

since this “latinx or latine” discussion is getting attention again, i’d like to point out that it’s important to know how disabled people feel about it, and why you should consider using “e” instead of “x” for making gendered words neutral.

basically, a blind brazilian and anti-ableism blogger first spoke about this issue in january 2015, claiming that words such as “latinx” and “bonitx” are actually anything but inclusive, since visually impaired people can’t understand what you’re saying, because their reading-out-loud softwares can’t pronounce these words. she then suggests that using “e” as a neutral term can be way more inclusive both to nonbinary and visually impaired people (ex.: latine, bonite). she also states that you can be neutral without using “ela” or “ele” by using instead “a pessoa/that person” or simply using the person’s name.

she stills talks about this issue on her page to this day, as well as many of other anti-ableism activists on facebook, and they ask us to spread the word by sharing their posts – so as a non-disabled person, that’s what i’m doing. i hope this helps!

other articles about this topic: [x], [x]

I just want to add, before anyone asks, that for spanish/portuguese speakers the “x” is really hard to use because %99 of the time it doesn’t come out natural at all. We literally don’t know how to say it, like the softwares. If we use it, it usually interrumps our speech all the time because we have to think how we say it. The “x”/the sound that it makes is not usual in our languages. The “e” not only helps disabled people but also it helps us because its easier and more natural in our tongues. 

On top of the aforementioned reasons to shift from latinx to latine for gender neutrality, doing so will not be difficult in oral speech even for native English speakers (instead of saying
/ˈlætɪnɛks/  = Lah-teen-ex

you say
/ˈlætɪnɛ/ = Lah-teen-eh).

If we’re thriving for inclusive language, we should thrive for an inclusive language that effectively includes everyone. The use of Latine (and -e suffixes for gender neutrality in Portuguese and Spanish), unlike that of Latinx (and -x suffixes for gender neutrality in Portuguese and Spanish), does not have ableist consequences, and does not exclude visually impaired people.

Like @curles said, spread the word!

Hey guess what, the -x ending isn’t for Spain or Portugal, it’s for Mexicans who’s ancestors spoke Nahua (some of the first Nations people of Mexico who had third gender recognition spoke Nahua). The sound it makes is “-ch” as in “lah-tín-ch”, not “-ex”.

It’s spelled that way (“-x”) because it’s how colonialists decided to write that sound when writing Nahua. If you can’t pronounce “-x” or “tl” its because you’re trying to speak Nahua-based words that were written out phonetically by Spanish speakers.

As a proud disabled nonbinary xicanx (chi-kan-ch, or Mexican American) person who’s grandmother spoke Nahua, there are a shit ton of valid reasons for a person to keep using -x endings. If the speech programs can’t say it right, then the programs need to be changed to include people of Nahua and Mexica decent (pronounced Meh-chi-cah, btw).

Anyway, I love being xicanx, I love being nonbinary, and I love being a polyglot/hobbist linguist. If you haven’t heard Nahua spoken before, I highly encourage you to look videos on YouTube!

https://youtu.be/ZL790d3MECI

You make a valid point. Definitely people who want to favor -x endings because it ties back to their cultural heritage, are completely entitled to do so and are in their complete right to keep using -x endings for gender neutrality. We have to strive for de-colonizing language as well, and nobody should be against it.

However, this post never addressed, or was referring to, the Spanish or the Portguese. This post was tackling an issue with language inclusivity and ableism that happens throughout Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking Latin American countries, that’s the reason why the post tackles the use of Latine to then shift to the use of -e endings for gender neutrality. 

Moreover, not all Spanish-speaking countries have historical/socio-cultural ties with the Mexica, nor their respective native peoples ever spoke Nahua. There are a handful of Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America which native people have no relation nor are connected in the slighest with the Mexica. And nobody here is saying that people with native ancestry should be forced to speak Spanish or Portuguese and do not defend their native language.

The use of the -e endings for gender neutrality are more likely to be accepted and used by Spanish and Portuguese Latin American speakers, for its pronunciation comes more natural and is more in tune with the sounds of those languages, which is also another key point of this whole language change people are striving for, so we have a real gender neutral alternative to be used in our daily speech and one that, hopefully, becomes normalized in the near future so everyone can feel comfortable using their own language, even when speaking it, thus doing away with masculine endings for gender neutrality.

Nobody is forcing anyone to do anything, if one wants to favor -x endings for specific reasons, they’re free to keep using those endings for gender neutrality. I agree that, given the chance, it is necessary to modify this softwares to be able to read -x endings for the reasons I have previously mentioned and the ones you also outlined. Yet, this should not come to the detriment of other Latines, who also have the right to have true gender neutrality in their respective languages and dialects.