"Inclusive" language « The Recovering Choir Director - Gregorian Chant & Catholic sacred music

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"Inclusive" language

While I was away, there was/is a spirited discussion going on about so-called “inclusive” language. Though I don’t go out of my way to lambaste or avoid it, I don’t particularly care for “inclusive” language. I’m not even going to link to relevant discussions regarding it.

If people want to be “inclusive” about language, they’re free to learn a linguistically “inclusive” language—like Tagalog, for example. In this tongue of my forebears, all pronouns are gender-neutral, leaving only the question of proper nouns to wrestle with. For instance, “Father” and “Mother” are still distinct words—tatay and nanay, respectively. Of course, gender politics in the Philippines don’t seem to be at the fever pitch found in the English-speaking world—that country already has had two female presidents. In the past twenty years, no less.

[Oddly enough, Tagalog has "exclusive" language when it comes to the pronoun "we". One form includes the person addressed, the other one doesn't. Hopefully this doesn't become an issue.]

Posted 11.10.2003
by Aristotle Esguerra
5 comments.
Filed under: Uncategorized.

5 Comments

Interesting about the pronouns in Tagalog.

I know Latin, so I have been very aware of where the Latin says “I” and the ICEL says “I,” or the Latin says “his” and the translation goes out of its way to never use masculine pronounsm iften clumsily.
On the other hand, the difference in meaning between vir and homo seemed (to me,) to justify the sort of inclusive language that finds a substitute for “men” when the word is meant to convey those with XX chromosomes as well as the other half.

But I’m also aware that for many of the texts we use, Latin is itself a translaion, and I have no Greek or Aramaic.

Do you know about the relative wealth or poverty of those languages vis a vis gender and pronouns and inclusivity?

Ben
11.11.2003 @ 8:08 am #

p.s. I’m curious, in Tagalog what person and number doe the first verb in the creed take?

In other tranlations around the world, are they saying the equivalent of “we believe” or “I believe,” I wonder.

Ben
11.11.2003 @ 8:11 am #

Ben - as Tagalog is not my first (or second) language, I had to do a quick search. I could find only one instance of the Nicene Creed in Tagalog online (here), but if this resource is to be believed, they use the pronoun “I” (ako). (I searched for both versions of “we” (kami, tayo) and found no instances.)

The Tagalog translation of the Apostles’ Creed uses ako as well.

Corrections welcome.

Aristotle A. Esguerra
11.11.2003 @ 1:02 pm #

Not just the question of “proper nouns” to wrestle with, but even more, that of common nouns.

Tagalog is such an unwieldy language, great as a medium for Victorian-type writing where the reader is kept guessing who a poem, a piece of gossip, or a love-letter might be alluding to, but hard to handle in daily conversations when people simply leave out antecedents and other consanguinity references.

There is no one word for “brother” or “sister” in Tagalog - there’s only “sibling.” You call your brother, “my male sibling,” and your sister, “my female sibling.”

Moreover, older cousins are addressed as “Brothers” and “Sisters” because the word “Cousin” is not a socially acceptable way to call your mother’s nephew.

Which is why Filipinos don’t find it unusual that Jesus’ “brothers and sisters” may have been, after all, just cousins who called Him, “Brother.” Cousins like St. Jude and St. James the Less…

Marie
11.11.2003 @ 1:46 pm #

New Testament Greek (’Koine’) used a set of pronouns similar to those of Latin: masculine and feminine for both the singular and plural forms of the third person (”he”, “she”, “they” (masc.), and “they” (fem.)). Where not specifically referring to males or females, the masculine forms were used.

Greg
01.11.2005 @ 2:10 pm #

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