un mensajito para la gente que se opone a las identidades diversas
El lenguaje inclusivo es de lo más estúpidx que pueda existir, amigues. JAJAAJAJAJAAJAJAJAJA
sí, una estupidez completa
RESPECTING OTHERS’ IDENTITIES IS FREE
a little message for those who oppose diverse identities
(some troll replies): Inclusive language is one of the stupidest things that could exist, amigues, hahahaha.
(Linguistic note: Amigues is a gender-inclusive way to say “friends”. They also use a gender-neutral X in the word for “stupid,” and I’m pretty sure it’s not even used correctly, but I’m not a native speaker.)
(another troll adds): Yes, a complete stupidity.
Campoalxóchitl: Hello, everyone who says that mentioning feminine and masculine while speaking is unnecessary, remember that Hermila Galindo was not allowed to serve in Congress because the law said it was the right of the MexicanOs to be eligible, and that didn’t include women. If it’s not named, it doesn’t exist.
(Linguistic note: in Spanish, plurals with an O can be read as either all-gender, or only male.)
– Boromir and Legolas couldn’t understand anything Sam said for about a week. (Sam: *finishes what he’s saying and leaves* Legolas: did you understand that Boromir: it had the tone of being friendly)
(Gimli does better w Shiretalk bcos dwarves historically have had a lot of contact with the Shire)
– Frodo picked up a Buckland accent while he was living there after his parents died. He mostly lost it again after moving back to Hobbiton but sometimes it comes out when he’s talking to Merry. Sometimes they slip into broad Buckland dialect & no-one can understand them except Gandalf & Pippin
– Pippin occasionally slips into broad Tookland dialect when he’s stressed out or angry and half the Fellowship straight up thinks he’s speaking a different language
– Westron is not Legolas’s first language and his vocabulary is both a) patchy and b) based on several thousand years of contact with Westron speakers so not all of what he knows is, up to date
– Merry & Pippin did best of the non-elvish speakers in Lorien through a combination of mime and just not giving a damn
– If Aragorn ever had a consistent accent he lost it a long time ago
– Gandalf is the only person who can consistently understand everyone else
FORGOT ONE
– by the time he gets to Minas Tirith Sam has figured out how to speak ‘standard’ Westron and could make himself understood if he wanted to, he just doesn’t care to.
‘I spent all those weeks making sense of their talk, they can make sense of mine’ ‘sam you’re making things so unnecessarily difficult for yourself’ ‘it’s the principle of the thing mr frodo’
“That was my biggest experience going to Merchant Taylors’. Extreme code switching. The most confusing conversation is to have to talk about the colonization of our continents.” We laughed a little at the ridiculousness of sentences like “we colonized us,” or “we took us into slavery.” But then his face turned serious. “That’s what we are. We are the inheritors of the scars of Empire, but also the spoils of Empire. And that kind of inside/outside state is totally ingrained in us. Which is why, at a time like now, where everybody’s being asked to pick a side, everything is binary, it’s a confusing time to be us.”
Sometimes i think about the idea of Common as a language in fantasy settings.
On the one hand, it’s a nice convenient narrative device that doesn’t necessarily need to be explored, but if you do take a moment to think about where it came from or what it might look like, you find that there’s really only 2 possible origins.
In settings where humans speak common and only Common, while every other race has its own language and also speaks Common, the implication is rather clear: at some point in the setting’s history, humans did the imperialism thing, and while their empire has crumbled, the only reason everyone speaks Human is that way back when, they had to, and since everyone speaks it, the humans rebranded their language as Common and painted themselves as the default race in a not-so-subtle parallel of real-world whiteness.
In settings where Human and Common are separate languages, though (and I haven’t seen nearly as many of these as I’d like), Common would have developed communally between at least three or four races who needed to communicate all together. With only two races trying to communicate, no one would need to learn more than one new language, but if, say, a marketplace became a trading hub for humans, dwarves, orcs, and elves, then either any given trader would need to learn three new languages to be sure that they could talk to every potential customer, OR a pidgin could spring up around that marketplace that eventually spreads as the traders travel the world.
Drop your concept of Common meaning “english, but in middle earth” for a moment and imagine a language where everyone uses human words for produce, farming, and carpentry; dwarven words for gemstones, masonry, and construction; elven words for textiles, magic, and music; and orcish words for smithing weaponry/armor, and livestock. Imagine that it’s all tied together with a mishmash of grammatical structures where some words conjugate and others don’t, some adjectives go before the noun and some go after, and plurals and tenses vary wildly based on what you’re talking about.
Now try to tell me that’s not infinitely more interesting.
“I never learned my Navajo language and I was never inspired to learn it. As I got older, I realized how valuable our language is to the livelihood of our Navajo Nation. ” -Dr. Shawna L. Begay
Our Navajo or Diné language is in danger of becoming extinct. Help us create and develop the first Navajo-English educational media TV puppet show, “Diné Bí Ná’álkid Time” which means ‘The Navajo Movie Time.’ It will inspire and teach our youth basic language skills using media as a technology tool. Parents, grandparents, children and grandkids can learn to speak Navajo fluently together within their own homes.
Long-time friends and educators, Dr. Shawna L. Begay and Charmaine Jackson have teamed up to create this new TV pilot for an all-ages audience or for anyone who wants to learn the Navajo language.
With your support, it’ll be the first educational Navajo and English puppet show that will teach and preserve the Navajo language and culture through digital media.
After several years of extensive research on the Navajo Nation, Dr. Begay recently completed her PhD from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas with her doctorate thesis, ‘Developing A Navajo Media Guide: A Community Perspective.’ As project director, she quickly realized she was a pioneer on the topic.
“When I decided what topic to study I realized there existed very little research in Indigenous educational media, especially with our Navajo people,” stated Dr. Begay. “As Navajo people, we have our own learning objectives and Navajo way of knowing is completely different for Euro-Western schooling. I decided that I had to research and develop our own curriculum guide that is meant to teach Navajo through media.”
Dr. Begay and Jackson, co-writers of the show, developed the first 3-puppet characters and plan for many more. The pilot features Nanabah-a young Navajo girl, Gáh (Rabbit) and Dlǫ̀ǫ̀ (Prairie Dog) who will go on endless adventures learning about language, gardening, the environment and the importance of family values. Nanabah is fluent in Navajo and likes to teach children about life on the reservation with her animal friends and special guests. Children who want to learn Navajo will also be an important part of the show by interacting with Nanabah, her friends and storyline.
Dr. Begay’s research concluded there exists very little research in the area of Indigenous educational media. Currently media is a very powerful tool that can be used to teach. She is cognizant of the digital age we live in and the opportunities to utilize media to revitalize the Navajo language.
“Star Wars and Finding Nemo,” dubbed in Navajo, was a great place to start and it has garnered national exposure of our language. However, we need a show based on our own Navajo learning principals our ancestors set out for us to learn and live by. I don’t think a non-Navajo, non-Native or non-Indigenous person can do that for us, nor should they. We, as Navajo, need to produce this show ourselves, if we are to be truly sovereign,” added Dr. Begay.
Both educators, Dr. Begay and Jackson, of Naalkid Productions have been talking about this educational language project for about the past four years and still have a long way to go to finance their dream.
“With the support of Navajo TV Anchor Colton Shone, our team of Navajo artists, filmmakers, family and friends, this video pilot is a huge step forward,” said Jackson. “Our journey has just begun and the big next step is finding financial support to create a whole new puppet TV series.”
We aim to raise $50,000 with this project which will allow us to continue with pre-production and production aspects of making this digital media project become a reality. We need your help to save our language by teaching Navajo to our future generations.
Pre-Production: -Script writing for the pilot show -Puppet Development/Creation -Casting for puppeteers and other talent that will be on screen -Hiring of all key cast and crew
Production: -Locations and permits -Rental of Studio space -Equipment: cameras, sound, lights, etc. -Cast and Crew budget
Despite all the notes on this post, they’re still at $13,155 of their $50,000 goal.
Please keeping sharing and donate if you can!
what it sits at as of 07/27/18
GoFundMe as of 09/01/2018 Currently: $35,912 of $50,000 goal
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!
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.
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!
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.
Legolas pretty quickly gets in the habit of venting about his travelling companions in Elvish, so long as Gandalf & Aragorn aren’t in earshot they’ll never know right?
Then about a week into their journey like
Legolas: *in Elvish, for approximately the 20th time* ugh fucking hobbits, so annoying
Frodo: *also in Elvish, deadpan* yeah we’re the worst
Legolas:
~*~earlier~*~
Legolas: ugh fucking hobbits
Merry: Frodo what’d he say
Frodo: I’m not sure he speaks a weird dialect but I think he’s insulting us. I should tell him I can understand Elvish
Rebellions are built on hope 