For some languages gender-neutral pronouns aren’t possible or aren’t appropriate. It’s really only in English and maybe five other languages that gender-neutral pronouns are a real thing and even in these languages if you’re not used to generate neutral pronouns reading them in common writing sounds like a mistake to begin with. It’s generally just easier to automate the task based on names, and the library itself comes from a time when that wasn’t a controversial thought. Lol
I’m Dutch and I have yet to see gender neutral pronouns etc that really work well. Unless you want to be called an “it”, but I’ve only heard people use that to mock people. They/them works quite well, but we don’t really have that afaik
I don’t think “hun/zij” is invalid and I’ll happily use it for someone if they want it, but what I mean is that it doesn’t feel as natural to use it for a single person as they/them. They/them in English has a history of being used for singular people as well. Saying “someone lost their bag” is a pre-existing language feature. Unfortunately “iemand is hun tas verloren” doesn’t sound as natural and I’ve never heard someone use it like that. It seems to be common to just use the masculine pronoun “z’n” in cases where the gender isn’t known.
Again, I don’t mean to invalidate anyone, I’d totally use these pronouns for a single person if they prefer that. It annoys me that our language doesn’t have a clear neutral pronoun. But in my experience “hun” is exclusively plural whereas “their” has always also been in use as a singular pronoun next to its use as a plural pronoun.
Turkish has (and maybe related languages have) genderless pronouns, but I don’t know whether that context shifts elsewhere in the sentence structure or not, and how necessary it might be in legal contracts.
For some languages gender-neutral pronouns aren’t possible or aren’t appropriate. It’s really only in English and maybe five other languages that gender-neutral pronouns are a real thing and even in these languages if you’re not used to generate neutral pronouns reading them in common writing sounds like a mistake to begin with. It’s generally just easier to automate the task based on names, and the library itself comes from a time when that wasn’t a controversial thought. Lol
English, Dutch, German, Papiamento, Spanish
just from the top of my head. That can’t be all of them?
I’m Dutch and I have yet to see gender neutral pronouns etc that really work well. Unless you want to be called an “it”, but I’ve only heard people use that to mock people. They/them works quite well, but we don’t really have that afaik
It’s a bit weird in dutch how part of the plural happens to be the same word. But hun/zij work fine. I’m dutch too, learn your own language m8
I don’t think “hun/zij” is invalid and I’ll happily use it for someone if they want it, but what I mean is that it doesn’t feel as natural to use it for a single person as they/them. They/them in English has a history of being used for singular people as well. Saying “someone lost their bag” is a pre-existing language feature. Unfortunately “iemand is hun tas verloren” doesn’t sound as natural and I’ve never heard someone use it like that. It seems to be common to just use the masculine pronoun “z’n” in cases where the gender isn’t known.
Again, I don’t mean to invalidate anyone, I’d totally use these pronouns for a single person if they prefer that. It annoys me that our language doesn’t have a clear neutral pronoun. But in my experience “hun” is exclusively plural whereas “their” has always also been in use as a singular pronoun next to its use as a plural pronoun.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_neutrality_in_genderless_languages
English, Persian, Tagalog, Turkish, Hungarian, Finnish, Swahili, Armenian, Georgian of the more well-known languages
Turkish has (and maybe related languages have) genderless pronouns, but I don’t know whether that context shifts elsewhere in the sentence structure or not, and how necessary it might be in legal contracts.