#queer linguistics

[elijah-terry]

Queer Multilingualism Linguistics Survey - 2023 ; CLOSED

Hi! My name is Gabe, and I am an undergraduate Linguistics student. You may have seen me put out a linguistics survey previously; this was for a graduate course, and I am still organizing that data and working on that paper. However, I have another research paper in a different linguistics course on Globalization of queer identities, and how language may affect the way queer identities are viewed and talked about. I am running another survey to collect data for this paper as well.

If you are queer and bilingual/multilingual, please consider taking this survey! How long it will take depends on the depth of your answers, but I would say 15-20 minutes is maybe a good estimate.

The survey can be found here, and I ask that you please reblog so it can reach more people! The survey will close on Friday, April 14th, at some point, so that I can begin organizing my data.

Thank you!

#langblr #bilingualism #multilingualism #bilingual #linguistics #queer linguistics

[grammarbender]

✨️Check out these linguistic fun facts:✨️

Fact 1: Singular they/them is used as a third person personal pronoun. Since when? Since the middle English period! Check this and this post for historical background on pronouns.

Fact 2: The use of singular they has been discussed for decades. Here’s a post about that.

Fact 3: According to those two studies singular they/them is widely accepted as a gender neutral third person pronoun in English (over 80%/70%). Check our post about it here.

Fact 4: they/them is not the only pronoun set non-binary people want to be referred with. Some use neopronouns or multiple sets of pronouns. Read more about neopronouns here.

Fact 5: Singular they/them needs to be integrated into language properly! If you want a helpful guideline, here's a post about that.

What is the ✨️fun✨️ part about these fun facts? Well look at the development and variety of the English language! It may not be interesting for everyone, but gender-neutral pronouns are linguistically very ✨️fascinating✨️

#linguistics #science side of tumblr #gender neutral language #pronouns #sciblr #they/them #nonbinary #english #english language #linguistics project #language #queer #they them #singular they #queer linguistics

[the-world-annealing]

I don't blame anyone who doesn't want to read ~7 paragraphs of me trying to communicate the most basic fact of queer rights to a decidedly unsympathetic audience so to distill that post down to its core insight:

A major linguistic impact of progressive movements has been the creation and promotion of words that make it about equally easy to refer to a majority group as to the corresponding minority group(s), e.g. 'neurotypical', 'cis', 'allosexual', 'perisex'. This is on the whole a convenient, useful, and good thing, and anti-minority efforts have an ideological interest in combating the use of these words.

#linguistics #queer linguistics #politics #metadiscourse

[transeliot]

Personally, it feels weird and performative to throw an x into an already gender-neutral term just for the hell of it, but want to know what others think.

#folks vs folx #folx #performative activism #performative allyship #queer #queer vocabulary #reblog for science #reblog for greater sample size #queer language #queer linguistics #linguistics #gay linguistics #for reference I am queer and work at a v v queer organization and I HATE when the cishets at work use folx in emails #it’s insane to me #about me #random thoughts

[ipsogender]

My journey to using "perisex" to referring to non-intersex people

My project for myself this evening was to sit down and think through the different terms for not-intersex so that I could just pick one, be consistent, and also be satisfied that my choice had an actual rationale that I could explain to others. (TLDR: I landed on perisex.)

So likely this is because I'm not American but it wasn't until I joined tumblr and started lurking in the intersex tags that I encountered the term perisex. I'd only ever encountered endosex used in meatspace, and dyadic I'd seen in glossaries but not actually used in any text I'd read.

And I like endosex, honestly. My formal science training has me feeling like endo is a better contrast to inter than peri is.

(Google trends confirms my sense that perisex is an Americanism. Endosex appears to be the more common search term in the rest of the world.)

But what has tipped the scales for me in sitting down and trying to reason out a choice so I can be consistent, is that endonormative as a term is already taken. Linguists have been using it for something completely different for ages and it's just going to clash.

Similarly "endo" on its own also has a lot of ambiguity in the queer community - usually I see it as shorthand for endocrinologist. There's also ambiguity with endogenic systems.

In contrast, perinormative only ever gets used to talk about how society expects a non-intersex body. Perisex might be a newer word than endosex but from the google trends it's catching on, becoming the more searched of the two since 2022.

As for dyadic - I've never liked it. Again this is probably my science training here but to me dyadic means a pair, a group of two. It to me implies that humans come in pairs - male and female - and this pairing is needed to form a complete dyad.

To me "dyadic" as a term implies that: 1. People are incomplete without a het pairing (single people are valid!). Hearing intersex people refer to perisex people as "dyads" to me really drives this home, like the perisex people exist only to get paired off with some other person to be complete. 2. Only perisex people can be in a pairing (intersex people can be in relationships!) 3. Only perisex people can reproduce (many intersex people can!) 4. Species with sexual reproduction can only ever have two sexes (nope! There are species that have only one sex that can reproduce sexually, there are also many nifty fungi out there with more than two sexes)

None of that sits well with me. I also just don't like it for symmetry reasons - we contrast heterosexual with homosexual, transgender with cisgender, it just seems weird to me to buck the trend and contrast intersex with dyadic?

And because it doesn't follow those trends we can't leverage similar language for other queer identities. Perisex and endosex let us start talking about perinormativity/endonormativity easily and leverage what people already know about cisnormativity and heteronormativity. Dyadic doesn't have that.

So, finally, I think I've figured out for myself that the term I'll be using from here on to refer to non-intersex people is perisex. 🙌 It's got some nice morphological qualities while also being distinct enough that it won't be confused for other terms (e.g. endocrinology, endogenic systems).

#intersex #perisex #perinormativity #language #queer linguistics #thought process info dump #text

[seerboy]

making polls on! my gender blog!

#seer’s sayings #mogai #liom #trans #transgender #nonbinary #queer linguistics #neo honorifics

[moose-posts]

I love university because I can sit down with a professor wearing an orange sweater with mushrooms on it and after he‘s talked to me about where to begin reading queer linguistics papers he can ask me if I have any further questions and I can point at the plants in his office and ask him if he‘s a plant gay and he can say yes

#queer linguistics #queer professors #queer at university #university life #english and american studies

[naeturblom]

an icelandic knock off of grindr called grindur

#queer linguistics #old norse #icelandic #why is this so funny

[nombinary-snax]

Linguists, lend me your learnings! I am really interested in linguistics but have little background in it. I feel very called to stay in healthcare and try to change the healthcare system so I am not likely to pursue a linguistics degree unless I have $50k lying around waiting to be used on something someday (unlikely).

I am looking for books, podcasts, webinars, etc that I can consume on my own schedule that would give me a good foundation in linguistics. Do you have recommendations?

#linguistics #lingthusiasm #language #Especially #Sociolinguistics #linguistness #Queer linguistics

[ashes2caches]

American transfems need to step up their fucking game. We could’ve had a mutually unintelligible dialect by now…

#196 #rule #196 campfire #r196 #queer #trans #transfem #linguistics

[sky-chau]

Are LGBTQ labels confusing? Do you ever see a collection of words and think "aren't some of those antithetical or mutually exclusive?" Congratulations! You've run into a very interesting phenomenon that I'm about to break down to the best of my ability.

There's two major philosophies when it comes to labels, they don't have names to my knowledge so I'm gonna call them Reflective and Telegraph.

The Telegraph Label philosophy states that labels primarily function as a means of conveying useful information about one's self to others. It's telling others what pronouns, what parts and what genders that person has or is attracted to. This is usually pretty straightforward, the stuff someone interested in dating you would check before asking you out to avoid embarrassment.

The Reflective Label philosophy states that labels are primarily a tool for describing an internal experience. Putting words to feelings for the benefit of the self. This is how we get lables like stargender or autismgender. These aren't meaningfully useful labels that tell others what to expect physically or what pronouns to use. But that doesn’t mean they're useless. In the case of someone using autismgender, that label probably describes the internal experience of the ways a person's autism impacts their views on and performance of gender. Stargender likely explains not that they literally see themselves as a star but rather that their internal experience of their prefered gender performance makes them feel a way that reminds them of stars or stargazing.

And this applies to sexuality too. Boy lesbian might seem antithetical but ultimately that label isn't there to tell others anything. It's merely a comfort to have words to describe a mess of feelings and social dynamics.

And for clarification, anyone calling themselves a boy-lesbian probably isn't the cis male boogieman forcing lesbians who aren't interested in cis men to date them or else be labeled a bigot. That boogieman doesn't exist. A more likely explanation is that a nonbinary or trans person has a complex relationship with their changing gender that doesn't trigger a change in the way they see themselves in relationships and attraction thus causing them to keep or adopt the lesbian label despite the gender weirdness going on.

I see a lot of infighting about what people call themselves and whether or not certain combinations can even physically exist. And Y'know what? I don't think that's terribly productive. Neither philosophy is wrong. People are just using labels to address different root problems.

As aggravating as it might be for Telegraphers, you don't have to understand everything. Not everyone feels that they owe you the list of information you find useful, and their labels reflect that. And that's okay.

#lgbtq #psa #queer #gender #sexuality #linguistics #philosophy #gay #bisexual #trans #aromantic #acesexual #lesbian

[namechangesurvey]

Would YOU like to contribute to my thesis project?

I'm working in the linguistic field of onomastics, the study of proper names. For this, I've designed a survey (linked below). It takes about 10-15 minutes to do and participation is anonymous.

I'm looking for participants, especially ones who

are genderqueer/trans* (transgender, nonbinary, genderfluid, agender, or anything in between!) and/or

have changed their first name (legal proceedings not mandatory, you just need to be using one that's different from your birth name in some capacity)

Please note that you are more than welcome to participate if these criteria do not apply to you! The bigger and more varied the sample size, the better! :D

And it would be super neat if folks would reblog this post and pass on the link to people they know who might be interested in participating!

(Reblogs are off because I did not expect this enthusiastic of a response - which is a wonderful problem to have, love y'all - and this original survey is no longer active. There's a new and more streamlined version linked in my pinned post if you'd like to participate!)

#queer #transgender #trans #linguistics #languages

[grammarbender]

Filling the Pronoun Gap 👌

Hi there! 🐝

Did you know that language holds immense power in shaping our social identity?

It's true! 🩷 Language is deeply personal and highly political, intertwining attitudes, perception, and the dynamics of discourse. Let's delve into some fascinating aspects together!

One area that has been capturing public attention, both on and off social media, is the discourse surrounding gender-neutral language. In particular, the use of gender-neutral pronouns like the singular they has been in the spotlight. In fact, it was even awarded the "Word of the Year" 👑 title by the American Dialect Society in 2015. This recognition symbolizes its acceptance and the conscious rejection of the traditional gender binary of "he" and "she."

While singular they isn't the only gender-neutral pronoun, it has taken center stage in the current debate. Neologisms such as ze, thon, and hisser have emerged as alternatives, although they are less commonly used. Interestingly, these neologisms have found favor within the queer and transgender community, highlighting their unique linguistic choices. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

By incorporating gender-neutral pronouns, we can embrace the representation of non-binary identities within our heteronormative society. But have you ever wondered how these pronouns found their way into the English language?

Traditionally, the generic he was used, assuming that "Everybody loves his mother." However, in the 1970s, feminists called for change, advocating against the male bias ingrained in language. They proposed using the plural personal pronoun they as a more inclusive and gender-neutral alternative. Over time, this usage has gained acceptance and is now considered valid by various style manuals and even the Oxford Dictionary itself.

Alternative constructs like "he/she" or "he or she" have been commonly used, attempting to be inclusive. However, they fall short of representing individuals who don't identify within the traditional gender binaries.

That's where the power of "Everybody loves their mother" comes into play. 💚

The use of singular they to refer to singular individuals has roots dating back to renowned literary works by William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, and Virginia Wolf. It's not a recent invention but rather a linguistic device with a rich history.

In fact, the English language has employed other interesting ways to refer to sex-indefinite individuals, as seen in examples like:

(1) "Anyone can do it if they try hard enough." (mixed-sex, distributive) 

(2) "Who dropped their ticket?" (sex unknown) 

(3) "Either Mary or John should bring a schedule with them."

(mixed-sex, disjunctive)

These examples demonstrate the flexibility and adaptability of language in addressing the need for inclusivity.

So, let's celebrate the evolving nature of language and embrace the power it holds to create a more inclusive society. ✨✨✨

#InclusiveLanguage #GenderInclusivity #TheyThemPronouns #linguistics #lgbtq+ #queer linguistics #they/them #gender neutral pronouns #nonbinary #english language #language #they them #singular they #queer

[starysmiles]

Whats the word for someones name when theyve transitioned and changed it twice? Like the middle name? Like not their birth name, but the name they used to go by, before they transitioned to their current name and gender.

You might not think you need a word for this but multiple of my friends have transitioned more than once, and they have a dead name, and also a less dead name?? Im using the word former alias but idk if theres an actual word for it.

#im new to being trans and i want help #im not calling them by these names btw #i just want to know if its still a dead name or if there’s another word for it #queer linguistics #trans

[ostropest]

gay accent vs lesbian accent

super interesting vid by @etymology_nerd on yt

#lesbian #gay #queer #science #linguistics

[linguisticdiscovery]

Polari

If you want to learn more about Polari, check out the fun book Fabulosa! The story of Polari, Britain’s secret gay language:

#Polari #gay #LGBTQ #queer #linguistics #language #lingblr #langblr