The Linguist

30 The Linguist Vol/64 No/4 ciol.org.uk/thelinguist OPINION & COMMENT Is Chinese coming full circle with gender-neutral language? ED TAM To meet the growing, global demand for inclusive language, gender-neutral, third- person singular pronouns have emerged in Chinese writing. This makes a refreshing change and, indeed, a mini-challenge whenever I am translating into Cantonese. It also comes even though Cantonese is largely gender-neutral – the masculinity or femininity of a word deduced only by the preceding morpheme, such as 男人 (naam jan; 'man', lit. 'male + person') and 女人 (neoi jan; 'woman', lit. 'female + person'). As a translator and copyeditor who seeks to contribute to queer emancipation, I have been working closely with academic researchers and organisations that are active and vocal in LGBTQ+ movements and queer linguistics in Hong Kong. Despite the relative neutrality of the language, the perception Hongkongers have of traditional family structures and gender roles seems to be significant. You may be surprised to learn that, in colloquial Cantonese, the third-person pronoun 佢 (keoi) refers to 'he', 'she', 'it' and 'they' in the singular form, whereas 佢哋 (keoi dei) refers to plural 'they' (哋 is the plural marker). However, it is a completely different story when written: in the singular form, 'he' is 他, 'she' is 她, 'it' (animals) is 牠, 'it' (inanimate objects) is 它 and 'He' (deities) is 祂. 1 Although these characters are written differently, they are pronounced identically as taa. Focusing on 'he' and 'she', the key to distinguish them is to look at the radical – the semantic component on the left. 他, which contains 亻 (a squashed pictographic 人; 'person'), was originally a genderless pronoun. However, as a result of the New Culture Movement in the early 20th century, it was modernised and turned masculine. Meanwhile, 她, introduced then to highlight the female gender for better translation of Western literature, has a radical of 女 ('female'). Similar to everyday Cantonese, the plural marker in written Chinese is 們 (mun), where 他們 (taa mun) is the default pronoun for persons of unknown gender. Concurrently, in mainland China, 'he', 'she', 'it' and 'He' in written Simplified Chinese and spoken Mandarin are exactly the same: 他, 她, 它 (for both animals and inanimate objects) and 祂 – all with the pinyin ta. For the sake of inclusivity, mainland Chinese netizens started adopting the romanised TA as the gender-inclusive, third-person singular pronoun, like 佢 in conversational Cantonese, on social media platforms and in other digital spaces, while keeping the plural marker 们 (or 們 in Traditional Chinese). This avoids the use of cumbersome phrases like 他或她 ('he or she') where gender information is irrelevant or unimportant. Across the border in Hong Kong in 2015, the local intersex advocacy group The Missing Gender 0.972 invented the neopronoun 㐅也 or x也 with the non-case- sensitive alphabet x. Here the radicals in 他 (masculine) and 她 (feminine) are replaced with an alternative gender marker 㐅 (ngaai; lit. (archaic) 'to mow') or 'x' – similar to how Latino/Latina/Latin@ becomes Latinx in Spanish. This creates a space of belonging where the diversity of gender identities and lived realities can be visible and validated. The coinage of TA and 㐅也 appears to be a high point in language evolution and the awareness campaign. It nonetheless raises a number of practical questions, such as: • How would TA be perceived in formal writing, given that it is internet slang and not a Chinese character? • While TA is extensively used by mainland Chinese netizens, is it the pronoun preferred by most of the non-binary individuals there? • Against a backdrop of political and cultural dynamics between Cantonese and Mandarin, would Hongkongers embrace TA? • Since 㐅也 is currently a two-character word on screen, would it be more widely recognisable if it were made into one typable character and adopted into Chinese input methods using the QWERTY keyboard? • Does the 㐅 radical in 㐅也 diminish non-binary people because it lacks human qualities? • Can Hongkongers instead adopt the colloquial 佢 into formal discourse, which is unique to Cantonese? Given how new these pronouns still are, it is only natural for language professionals to ponder these questions when they localise content into Cantonese. Nevertheless, there is one golden rule that we can rely on: be consistent. For instance, the Transgender Resource Center in Hong Kong uses TA in its publications and resources, so TA should be used in all its official written materials. If there is no style preference (yet), it would be wise to consult the client and discuss with them to see whether they prefer TA, 㐅也 or something else. Back to neutrality

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