Swedish Hens

[Kyriakos]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hen_(pronoun)

Hen (Swedish: [hɛn] ( listen)) is a gender-neutral personal pronoun in Swedish intended to replace the gender-specific hon ("she") and han ("he") to some extent: it can be used when the gender of a person is not known or when it is not desirable to specify them as either a "she" or "he". The word was first proposed in 1966, and again in 1994, with reference to the Finnish hän, a personal pronoun that is gender-neutral, since Finnish does not have grammatical genders. However, it did not receive widespread recognition until around 2010, when it began to be used in some books, magazines and newspapers, and provoked media debates and controversy over feminism, gender neutrality and parenting. In July 2014 it was announced that hen would be included in Svenska Akademiens ordlista, the official glossary of the Swedish Academy.

So the swedish academy created a new gender-term, which is one not neutral but ambiguous (you don't say ). Do you think this is a good development, and will it be used by people by and large, or will it be ridiculed and abandoned?

 

[sophie]

Is it a good idea?
Yes.

Will is see widespread adoption?
Probably not right now, but we'll see over time. It's certainly something I'd like English to start using more. Ze sounds weird. Not using that. S/he or He or she are really stilted and awkward. The impersonal they is really the best option English has, and while it's usable usually it results in conversations getting sidetracked by pointless grammar nazi-ing.

 

[Senethro]

I find myself using They as a gender neutral singular in English. Didn't even notice myself doing it until my father pointed it out (because it irritates him!). Seems natural enough and has its uses. At least it is less awkward than constructions like "he/she" or alternating between them.

 

[Kyriakos]

Here one can easily use an impersonal (neutral) term for a human, without naming gender anyway. Neutral is used both for objects and some terms for humans (eg 'child' is neutral and not gendered, with other terms meaning specific gender of the child, etc).

Not sure if Swedish has something like that, and maybe even if it does it will have connoted way too much objects and inanimate stuff by now, like the english "it", to be used instead of this "hen".

I doubt it will be used much, though.

 

[Lohrenswald]

Once again Sweden demonstrates it's complete lack of common sense

Ha

HA

HA

ha

 

[Grendeldef]

Given it's the Swedes I'd give it a fair chance to flourish at least in some form of official use - the general public in every day use will most likely mainly ignore it but after all, it's refreshing to see the Swedes using us as an example in any sort of equality issue.

 

[JollyRoger]

If they are looking for a gender neutered term, they can borrow MRA.

 

[Lillefix]

I hard about it a couple of years ago, but I didn't think they would take it this far. But it's Sweden, so I shouldn't be surprised. Their left wing fringe politicians are among the weirdest in Europe, and it's beginning to show.

 

[Verbose]

So the swedish academy created a new gender-term,

It didn't. The word was already being bandied about. What the academy did was recognise it has entered the language already. They're supposed to reflect the actual use and development of the language after all.

Swedish already uses two different forms of the neuter "it" ("den" and "det", on of the trickier aspects for learners of the language — they almost always get it wrong)

And then this hen-thing grew out of some people using "en" ("one", and is "one can say") as a gender neutral term. (It's also possible to be very generically unspecific by using "man", which means "man", as in a bloke, literally, but is used as a collective term correpsonfing to the singular "one" — but for stylistic reasons "man" is usually avoided since it too damn unspecific.)

What someone then ended up doing was create an analogue to the gender-specific "han" and "hon" (he/she), as "hen", rather than the unspecified "en" (or "man"), since using "den" or "det" for people feels disturbingly objectifying and dehumanizing. "Hen" then is kind of a specific-gender-unspecific term.

"Hen" then did took off a couple of years back, by being picked up by some major newspaper, giving it wider currency.

Can't say I use it myself.

 

[Agent327]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hen_(pronoun)

So the swedish academy created a new gender-term, which is one not neutral but ambiguous (you don't say ). Do you think this is a good development, and will it be used by people by and large, or will it be ridiculed and abandoned?

Don't really care, personally. But your quote doesn't show the Swedish Academy creating any word.

 

[Yeekim]

The Swedes have finally understood inherent superiority of Finnish (and Estonian).

 

[Kyriakos]

But still Estonia cannot into Nordic

 

[Yeekim]

Nah, we're happy to be just European.

Let's see whether Greece can remain European too, shall we?

 

[Kyriakos]

^Ancient Greece literally invent(sic) Europe as a word ^^

I vote for restored Byzantine Empire, btw.

 

[Yeekim]

I vote for restored Byzantine Empire, btw.

That would be completely unnatural and an affront to defining Byzantine tradition of keeping to a firm 1000-year downward spiral.
Well, maybe if you manage to find another Macedonian ruler, you'll catch a slight break.

 

[Kyriakos]

But, to bring us back on-topic, such a new glorious ruler must be addressed with the help of a Hen.

 

[Borachio]

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hen

Confused? Yep. It's my default state.

 

[thecrazyscot]

Urban dictionary will do that to you for any word

 

[Verbose]

The Swedes have finally understood inherent superiority of Finnish (and Estonian).

It might even be considered a curious the word wasn't been invented before.

As a Finnish girl once told me (in by Finnish heavily accented English):
"You Swedes, like all Indoeuropean speakers, are so analy retentive about stating precisely WHO is doing something. In Finnish, things just happen!"

Considering that, Swedish not having a gender-neutral noun for those instances might even be considered an oversight.

 

[warpus]

Swedish didn't have gender neutral words before?

I don't understand the problem, I guess. If someone is coming to my party, and I don't know the gender of this person, there is no need to create a new word in Polish, English or German. Words already exist to handle this situation. For example, in English you would say, "Oh, so they're coming to my party? Who is this person?". In Polish you defer to the word you're using. So if the word is "person", that's a male word, so you say "he". Or you can actually avoid using any sort of gender-specific word and just say: "Person coming?" or something similar.

Can something like this not be done in Swedish? Why the need for a new word? And why now, after hundreds of years after the language first came into use?