Binnen-I
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In German, a medial capital I (
The Binnen-I is a non-standard solution for how to economically express a position of gender equality in one German word, with an expression that would otherwise require three words. Since most English nouns (excluding pronouns) have no grammatical gender, words such as teacher(s), student(s), professor(s), and so on, can be used without implying the gender of the being(s) to which the noun refers. The situation in German, however, is more difficult since all nouns have one of three grammatical genders, masculine, feminine, or neuter.
When used with a noun designating a group of people, a Binnen-I indicates that the intended meaning of the word is both the feminine as well as the masculine forms, without having to write out both forms of the noun. It is formed from the feminine form of a noun containing the -in suffix (singular) or -innen suffix (plural). For example, Lehrerinnen (women teachers) would be written LehrerInnen, with the meaning (men and women) teachers, without having to write out both gender forms, or use the
Other gender-inclusive typographic conventions exist in German that perform a similar function, such as the gender star.
Background
U.S. second wave
Part of the academic ferment in the United States in second-wave feminism in the 1970s was the attention paid to
Nouns and gender
German has three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. With the exception of some relationship nouns (mother, father, daughter, etc.) that are tied to the sex of the person, the gender of a noun is arbitrary, and can be any one of the three;[7][c] for example, masculine: Knoblauch (garlic); feminine: Steckrübe (turnip), Person (person); or neuter: Haus (house), Mädchen (girl).
In German, as to a lesser extent in English, some nouns designating people come in masculine/feminine pairs; in German they are often distinguished by an -in suffix in the feminine (Schauspieler/Schauspielerin), where English sometimes uses -ess (actor/actress). Similarly, in both languages the feminine form of such nouns is semantically marked and can only refer to a woman in each language, whereas the masculine form is unmarked and can designate either a man, if known, or an unknown person of indeterminate sex. In the plural, German generally has separate plurals for masculine and feminine (Juristen/Juristinnen: male attorneys/female attorneys).
In referring to a mixed (male/female) group of people, historically one would use the generic masculine, for example, Kollegen (masc. pl.; "colleagues"). To make it clear that both genders are included, one could use a three word phrase with the masculine and feminine versions of the noun joined by und ("and"), e.g. Kolleginnen und Kollegen (women colleagues and male colleagues).
History
Feminist Sprachkritik
At the end of the 1970s, groundbreaking work created the field of German feminist linguistics[e] and critiqued both the inherent structure and usage of German on the one hand, and on the other, men's and women's language behavior, and concluded that German is antagonistic towards women (frauenfeindlich), for example, in the use of the generic masculine form when referring to mixed groups which makes women have no representation in the language, mirrors a "Man's world," and makes it seem like students, professors, employees, bosses, politicians, every group spoken about—is male, and women were invisible in the patterns of speech; and went on to say that language doesn't only mirror reality, it creates it.[1][8][9]
The use of
It is a solution to a problem of word economy: how do you avoid saying a three-word compound, e.g., Lehrer und Lehrerinnen (male teachers and female teachers) when you just want to say teachers in German? There are four methods, of varying levels of acceptance:[10]
- Word pair with "and": Lehrer und Lehrerinnen (male teachers and female teachers); completely acceptable and standard
- Parentheses: Lehrer(in) (male teacher, (female teacher)); Pl: Lehrer(innen) (male teachers; (female teachers))
- Slash: Lehrer/in; Pl: Lehrer/innen
- internal-I: LehrerIn; pl: LehrerInnen
In 1990, this usage caused a kerfuffle in the
Usage and norms
Like French, Spanish, and other languages, but unlike English, the German language has a
As Binnen-I is a typographic convention, it is seen in writing, and the internal capital I does not affect pronunciation of a word written with Binnen-I. However, in some cases, there is an attempt to indicate the convention in pronunciation, by using a glottal stop to create a momentary pause before the 'I'.[citation needed]
Other methods
Other nonstandard typographic conventions exist in German for promoting gender-inclusivity, including use of a slash, parentheses, an underscore (called the
Gender star
The gender star is another recent, nonstandard typographic convention influenced by feminist linguistics. This convention uses an asterisk before the –innen suffix to perform the same function as the medial capital 'I' does for Binnen-I. Since the asterisk resembles a star, when used for this function, the asterisk is referred to as the Gendersternchen; literally, "little gender star".
The gender star was put forward as an improvement on the Binnen-I, which was seen as too beholden to the
Gender star was named German Anglicism of the Year [de] in 2018.[15]
The gender star is pronounced by some people, who employ a glottal stop to mark it. (In situations other than this one, the stop sometimes occurs at the beginning of a word, and sometimes in the middle, but never before suffixes.)[13]
See also
- Capitalization
- Capitalization in English
- Feminist language reform
- Gender-neutral language
- Gender-neutral pronoun
- Gender role in language
- German orthography
- Grammatical gender
- Language and gender
- Language and thought
- Lavender linguistics
- Letter case
- Sapir–Whorf hypothesis
- Women's studies
Notes
- ^ FußgängerInnenzone (pedestrian zone) from Fußgänger (pedestrian) + -Innen + Zone. The standard word for this in German is Fußgängerzone.
- ^ Hundehalter is "dog owner", and HundehalterInnen is "male and female dog owners". In the full size image you can see AnrainerInnen (neighbors) as well. (The sign requests owners to keep their dogs from continuous barking for the sake of the neighbors.)
- ^ Certain word suffixes like -lein, -ung, -chen and others are tied to a certain noun gender, so are not arbitrary in that sense.
- ^ Pfadfinder is "[Boy] Scout" + Innen + Heim (shelter, hut, residence) gives PfadfinderInnenheim with Binnen-I, so: "Boy- and Girl Scouts trail shelter."
- ^ These groundbreaking works were by the pioneers in German feminist linguistics, Senta Trömel-Plötz, and Luise F. Pusch.
Footnotes
- ^ a b Stötzel 1995, p. 518.
- ^ Holmes 2008, p. 551.
- ^ Baron 1987, p. 6.
- ^ a b Bodine 1975.
- ^ Cameron 1998.
- ^ Leue 2000.
- ^ Hellinger 2013, p. 3.
- ^ Klass 2010, p. 2–4.
- ^ Brenner 2008, p. 5–6.
- ^ There are at least two more that are implicitly inclusive rather than explicitly inclusive: Lehrkräfte (lit.: "teaching staff members") and, at least grammatically feasible, Lehrende (lit.: "teaching ones")
- ^ Stötzel 1995, p. 537.
- OUP. Retrieved 18 February 2018.
- ^ a b Stefanowitsch, Anatol (2018-06-09). "Gendergap und Gendersternchen in der gesprochenen Sprache" [Gender gap and gender star in spoken German]. Sprachlog (in German). Retrieved 2019-04-04.
- OCLC 1011112208.
- ^ "IDS: Corpus Linguistics: Anglicism of the Year 2018". Retrieved 2019-04-05.
- ^ Pusch, Luise F. (8 March 2019). "Debatte Geschlechtergerechte Sprache. Eine für alle" [Debate Gender-appropriate language. One for all.]. Die Tageszeitung: Taz (in German). Retrieved 2019-05-17.
References
- Baron, Dennis E. (July 1987). Grammar and Gender. New Haven: Yale University Press. OCLC 780952035. Retrieved 15 February 2018.
- Bodine, Anne (1975). "Androcentrism in prescriptive grammar: singular 'they', sex-indefinite 'he', and 'he or she'". Language in Society. 4 (2): 129–146. S2CID 146362006.
- Brenner, Julia (2008). Männersprache / Frauensprache : geschlechtsspezifische Kommunikation [Men's Language/Women's Language: Gender-specific Communication] (student thesis) (in German). Munich: GRIN Verlag. OCLC 724724124. Retrieved 15 February 2018.
- Bibliographisches Institut & F.A. Brockhaus (2011). Richtiges und gutes Deutsch: Das Wörterbuch der sprachlichen Zweifelsfälle [Correct and Good German: Usage Guide]. Der Duden in zwölf Bänden : das Standartwerk zur deutschen Sprache (in German). Vol. 9 (7., vollständig überarbeitete Auflage [completely revised 7th] ed.). Mannheim: Dudenverlag. p. 418. OCLC 800628904.
- Cameron, Deborah (1998). "9. Androcentrism in prescriptive grammar: singular 'they', sex-indefinite 'he', and 'he or she'". The Feminist Critique of Language: A Reader (2 ed.). London: Psychology Press. OCLC 635293367. Retrieved 15 February 2018.
- Hellinger, Marlis; Bußmann, Hadumod (10 April 2003). Gender Across Languages: The linguistic representation of women and men. Studies in language and Society, 11. Vol. 3. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing. OCLC 977855991. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
- Hellinger, Marlis (8 March 2013). Sprachwandel und feministische Sprachpolitik: Internationale Perspektiven (in German). Opladen: West Deutscher Verlag. OCLC 715231718. Retrieved 15 February 2018.
- Pauwels, Anne (15 April 2008). "24. Linguistic Sexism and Feminist Linguistic Activism". In Holmes, Janet; Meyerhoff, Miriam (eds.). The Handbook of Language and Gender. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-75670-6. Retrieved 15 February 2018.
- Horny, Hildegard (1995). "13. Feministische Sprachkritik [Feminist Language Critique]". In Stötzel, Georg; Wengeler, Martin (eds.). Kontroverse Begriffe: Geschichte des öffentlichen Sprachgebrauchs in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland [Controversial Terms: History of Everyday Language in the Federal Republic of Germany] (in German). Vol. 4. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. pp. 517–562. OCLC 802718544. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
- Klass, Alex (2010). Die feministische Sprachkritik und ihre Auswirkungen auf die deutsche Gegenwartssprache [Feminist Linguistic Criticism and its Effect on Contemporary German] (in German). GRIN Verlag. OCLC 945944735. Retrieved 15 February 2018.
- Leue, Elisabeth (2000). "Gender And Language In Germany". Debatte: Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe. 8 (2). Routledge: 163–176. S2CID 145012780.
- Stötzel, Georg; Wengeler, Martin; Böke, Karin (1995). Kontroverse Begriffe: Geschichte des öffentlichen Sprachgebrauchs in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (in German). Vol. 4. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. OCLC 802718544. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
Further reading
- Hurley, Natasha and Susanne Luhmann. "The Capital »I«. Feminism, Language, Circulation" in: Abbt, Christine; Kammasch, Tim (2009). Punkt, Punkt, Komma, Strich?: Geste, Gestalt und Bedeutung philosophischer Zeichensetzung [Period, Period, Comma, Dash?: Gesture, Form, and Meaning of Philosophical Punctuation]. Edition Moderne Postmoderne. Bielefeld: OCLC 427326653. Retrieved 23 March 2018.
External links
- Sprach-Feminismus (in German)