Re: Gender in language

Warrl kyree Tale'sedrin (warrl@mail.blarg.net)
Tue, 24 Mar 1998 23:00:10 +0000


> From: "Lee Daniel Crocker" <lcrocker@mercury.colossus.net (none)>

> Unfortunately, pronouns are a problem with every major
> modern language. Traditional Chinese was one of the few
> major languages in which one could write a long story
> without ever revealing the gender of any character, but
> the language was, alas, "modernized" in the 60s by giving
> it the same gender bias as western languages.

In the Thieves' World series there is a Blue Star adept, name
escapes me at the moment, where a typical story either does not
reveal the adept's gender at all or reveals it only rather late in
the story, at a point where it is actually necessary to the story to
reveal it.

This is in English.

Note: at various points various characters *think* they know this
adept's gender and might use a gender-specific pronoun.
But the narrator does not (except where necessary to the story). And
there are no obvious peregrinations to avoid such pronouns.


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