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Subject:Re: The gender issue From:Bernd Hutschenreuther <Bernd -dot- Hutschenreuther -at- PREPRESS -dot- DE> Date:Thu, 21 Jan 1999 10:03:02 +0200
Hi Liz,
The languages are developing themselves. So, if you write technical
documentation for other countries requires to know about their culture.
I'm writing technical documentation in English now, but enable myself to do
so I try to learn as much as I can from English speakers from all over the
world, England, Ireland, U.S.A., Canada, etc.
So the gender issue was interesting for me, and I suppose, it is also a
technical communication item.
The gender of most of the German words in German language have nothing to
do with the concepts of male or female, but some do.
There is no general rule, and the gender of some words was changed some
times. One of the reasons is a change of sound, afterwards the gender
changed by analogy.
Sometimes the same word has two genders, some times the gender is changing
right now.
On the area of professions the idea of political correctness is changing
the language.
Example:
The profession was "Kaufmann", both for man and woman. (business man)
Now there are two words: der Kaufmann (for business man) and die Kauffrau
(for business woman.)
In Old English "man" (German: Mensch) was used as well for He-man (Mann)
and She-man - now woman (Frau).
In German some people want to be political correct by writing "I" inside a
profession to indicate both man and woman. But this is not valid in
standard German.
"ProfessorInnen" = Professorinnen und Professoren.
We have the word "man", indicating "somebody". I is replaced sometimes by
"frau".
(Also not in standard German, it is used by "alternative" feeling groups,
and sometimes in Ads.)
"Man kauft etwas" - somebody is buying something.
Now we often see:
"Frau kauft etwas" - "she-somebody is buying something"
In documentation: If you write German documentation, use second person, if
possible, as described by Petra Thieman:
> Most of the times we try to be politically correct using the plural or
the neutral gender. That is easy as long as you describe software or GUI
or something like that.
Best regards, and have a good morning
Bernd
>I thought the discussion about gender was interesting. When I took Latin
>here at Baylor, it was my understanding that the gender of the nouns was
>determined by whether or not the noun was considered
>masculine or feminine. For example, the feminine word "navis" means
>"ship" and ships are always referred to as "she" or "her." The masculine
>word "miles" means soldier, obviously males at that time. Most of the
>replies to that message indicated that the gender of French, German, &
>Italian words had nothing to do with the concepts of male or female, but
>I believe they did.
>
>Liz Keitt
>Baylor University
>Waco, Texas
