The ATA Chronicle - July/August 2022 - 15

T
he saying that words
can be more powerful
than weapons
reportedly dates back to the
7th century BC and has since
found its way into literature
in many forms. And indeed,
one could argue that many a
written word has led to some
incredible changes in the real
world-take Martin Luther's
95 theses1
, or perhaps
a more recent example
when business magnate
Elon Musk posted a tweet2
suggesting he had fallen out
of " love " with the world's
top cryptocurrency, which
caused the price of Bitcoin to
fall sharply. But how much of
an impact can words really
have? Do they really matter
that much?
Even in our modern
world, we still see many
inequalities between genders,
people, ages, or abilities. In
recent years, people have
become more aware of how
language, and specifically
inappropriate terms (e.g.,
the frequently used IT terms
" blacklist " / " whitelist, " or
" master " / " slave " ), further
sustain these inequalities,
deciding it's time to retire
them for better terms that
reflect a more inclusive world.
But while replacing
outdated terminology with
new, more appropriate,
and inclusive words seems
straightforward enough and
can solve concerns around
racist, ageist, or ableist terms,
using inclusive language to
remove inequalities doesn't
stop there. One of the biggest
considerations-and current
challenges-of inclusive
language is the topic of
gender visibility or gender
inclusion.
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You may have come across
the riddle about a father and
son being in an accident.
The father is killed and the
son gravely injured. He is
taken to the hospital, where
the surgeon on duty says, " I
cannot operate on this child,
he is my son. " This makes us
wonder for at least a moment,
because all too often we still
think of a surgeon as being
male (despite the many
seasons of Grey's Anatomy).
While this story in some
respect may give the English
language an advantage in
terms of gender inclusivity-
as it's already including all
genders in the generic term
" surgeon " -things are not
as straightforward in many
other languages. For example,
in German, an " engineer "
is either explicitly male (der
Ingenieur) or female (die
Ingenieurin).
Classroom experiments
with Dutch and German
primary school students3
have shown that girls
are more likely to pick a
career option in the fields
of science, technology,
engineering, and math
if the job titles are
presented in pair form
(e.g., " Ingenieurinnen und
Ingenieure " /female and male
engineers) instead of just the
generic masculine form. This
strongly supports the idea
of " what you can't see, you
can't be " and highlights why
representation, even " just "
in words, is so important.
At HubSpot, where I work
as a senior localization
specialist with the German
team, inclusive writing is one
of the key considerations for
all our content. To achieve
this, we follow an inclusive
One of the biggest considerations-
and current challenges-of inclusive
language is the topic of gender
visibility or gender inclusion.
writing guide that highlights
the things to consider when
writing, such as age, gender,
ability, or ethnicity. In the
guide we explain: " Words
matter and the language we
use should be inclusive and
welcoming to our community
of readers and end-users
who have layered identities. "
This guide was initially
created in English, but with
HubSpot operating in many
countries across the world,
it soon became apparent
that similar guidelines
would be required for the
supported languages such as
French, German, Japanese,
and Spanish. As a result,
a working group within
the in-house localization
team set out to establish
the language-specific
counterparts, and Operation
Inclusive Language was born.
As we got to work creating
these language-specific
guides, we realized that each
language comes with its own
set of challenges. One of
the biggest was frequently
having to rephrase genderspecific
language.
As mentioned earlier, the
English language often uses
gender-neutral terms (e.g.,
" the customer " ), whereas
in German, for example, the
generic masculine is used.
Here, the subject of gender
poses the biggest challenge.
There are male and female
versions of most terms
to describe a person. For
example, we have " Kunde " (a
male customer) and " Kundin "
(a female customer). The
plural would be " Kunden " -
the so-called generic
masculine-which used to
be defined as describing all
genders, but as the language
has been evolving to reflect
the current culture, this
is no longer considered
inclusive. For German, using
the pair form (male and
female)-so, in our example,
" Kundinnen und Kunden " -is
an improvement over the
generic masculine form, but
it still leaves out non-binary
genders.
There are other options
to write in a manner that's
gender-inclusive. For
example, using an asterisk
to write " Kund*innen " or
a colon for " Kund:innen "
(both options are understood
to include all genders). But
these forms may pose a
challenge for screen readers
and potentially exclude
visually impaired readers.
Although inclusive writing
is gaining momentum,
there are no established
rules (yet) from the German
authority on grammar and
spelling, the Duden4
. So,
there's currently a mix of
the forms I described earlier.
Some are more popular
than others, but all are also
heavily disputed by purists
who consider them an
unnecessary interference
with the language.
American Translators Association 15
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The ATA Chronicle - July/August 2022

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