Being Non Binary in Europe - Gender Neutral Language Across the Continent
It’s easy to get consumed with English language-centric discussions when it comes to gender. English, despite its often-befuddling complexity, is actually a relatively gender-neutral language. But what about the rest of Europe? How are they navigating the language around non-binary identities? How is this even possible when so many European languages gender EVERYTHING?
Inclusive language is relatively simple in English. In the UK and US and other English-speaking countries, there’s already precedent. ‘They’ is used to refer to one person if that someone is of unknown gender. This has been the case for centuries. We use it automatically and may not even realise it, for example when we say “someone dropped their phone!” when someone, has indeed, dropped their phone.
English continues to develop, with a small portion of British nonbinary people using neopronouns instead of they. Neopronouns are words that have been invented solely for the use of gender-diverse people, for example, ze or xe. Whilst by no means the most popular gender-neutral option, their use is on the rise.
Lots of US & UK companies have realised that introducing neo-pronouns is relatively straightforward, and an excellent signifier of inclusion. Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) teams are already encouraging their usage across organisations, adding pronouns to email signatures and Zoom titles. Much like the rainbow lanyards of years gone, it shows a clear act of progress towards a more open discussion of gender. For companies with a more global footprint, however, language differences mean that this isn’t always as straightforward. So, what does naturalising pronouns look like away from English?
Gender-neutral Europe
The array of languages packed into this continent is fascinating, but as attitudes towards the LGBTQ+ community in Europe progress, languages need to keep up. Some European languages are much more heavily gendered than English. Unlike English, their words are inherently gendered and there is often no existing neutral pronoun already in use. These languages rely on neopronouns to fill that gap.
One example is German, which is well known for its complex and deeply gendered grammar. Some LGBTQ+ groups are trying to introduce xier as a gender-neutral alternative to er and sie but haven’t got the mainstream traction they were hoping for. Some German nouns even change depending on the gender of the person they’re describing. For example, a male friend is ein Freund, but a female friend is eine Freundin. There have been numerous attempts to alter these suffixes, such as using Freund*in to mean nonbinary friend, but again, none have been widely adopted.
Attempts to introduce gender-neutral pronouns in France have also struggled. Activists have suggested combining the gendered pronouns elle and il to form a neutral pronoun iel. Many nonbinary people do choose to use iel, however, it is outright banned from official documents. The French take the standards of their language very seriously, and there isn’t the same flexibility of usage enjoyed by other language speakers.
Italian and Spanish linguists have similar approaches to gendered language. Both opt to use punctuation instead of gendered suffixes. In Italian, use of an asterisk is common, so bella/bello is replaced with bell*. A more common example in Spanish is the use of Latinx instead of Latina or Latino, although this is arguably an Americanism and not necessarily used by Spanish Spanish speakers. As for pronouns, nonbinary people in Spain can use elle instead of el or la, although, as is a theme across Europe, this is not officially sanctioned.
One country that has accepted changes to its language is Sweden. In 2012, Sweden began to use hen instead of its gendered equivalents, han and hon. This new pronoun was added to the official Swedish dictionary, was met with enthusiasm, and is now widely used. Finland is another excellent example of neutral pronouns in action. In fact, they’ve been doing it for centuries.
“Hän (the ä is pronounced like the a in “at”) has always existed in Finnish, predating the first Finnish-language book, which appeared in 1543. Finnish isn’t the only language that has a gender-neutral third-person pronoun, but if you come from a Germanic, Romance or Slavic language, it’s something you probably notice right away.” This Is Finland, 2021.
This is just a snapshot of how nonbinary people in different countries face different challenges when describing themselves accurately in their native language. From the relatively simple use of they in English to the struggle of neopronouns in German, every European culture has a different approach when it comes to gender diversity and inclusion of nonbinary people. There’s complexity to overcome, but lots of excellent precedents of putting gender-neutral language into action, either by elevating terms already in use, or coming up with smart and usable neo-pronouns. Either way, all it requires is a little bit of compassion combined with an open mind. The one thing language does best is change to reflect the way we experience the world, right? Otherwise, we’d have never invented the word blog or website . . .