3 ms·

Why are you referring to India using human pronouns ? He/her? You can just say “India”.

by bamboozled 4y ago

mperham 4y ago
Approximately 80% of the planet does not speak English at all. Be kind.
- bamboozled 4y ago
  I speak multiple languages and I was asking a question, not trying to be unkind. I asked the question because their English seemed so good to me that it seemed intentional, it also seemed unusual.
- ryan_lane 4y ago
  I think gendering a country is something that's done specifically if you're relatively native in English. To me it's the kind of thing I'd expect to hear from my grandparents. It's weird and old-fashioned. Even most news sources use the genderless "it" for countries nowadays. It's honestly a bit cringy to read.
rrrrrrrrrrrryan 4y ago
In languages with gendered nouns, countries, cars, boats, and houses are almost always female because they contain humans (and females have a womb). English doesn't have gendered nouns, but this linguistic quirk runs deep enough in human psychology that we do sometimes use female pronouns to describe these things. Examples: "She's a beauty" (of a car), or "America and her allies."
- alostpuppy 4y ago
  That is fascinating. It’s more or less like me trying to use the metric system.
- sbaiddn 4y ago
  "because they contain humans (and females have a womb)." While I like the theory, its cute, I dont know that that's true. L'automobile is male in Italian and Spanish. And its easy for a native speaker in either language to come up with numerous examples. In fact gender really is just grammar. We shouldn't see much into it trying to project ourselves into it. Otherwise, why can the same object have different genders through synonyms? Again: La macchina L'automobile. La yerba (granted in Spanish its lost its meaning as grass) El cesped La nave Il barco La embarcación El bote Or changes from the addition of a mere diminutive: Il banco La bancarella Il barco La barchetta Gender is just a classification, largely binary (although Spanish retains the neuter) that got the unfortunate sexual labels of male and female
  - mdrzn 4y ago
    > L'automobile is male in Italian and Spanish. What? LA automobile is female. > Il barco La barchetta "IL barco" doesn't mean anything, it's "LA barca" which, again, is female. I'd say that generally speaking "it's female when they contain people" is correct, but of course not always (LO ufficio = the office).
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
- tamirzb 4y ago
  This sounds interesting but I don't think it holds true? Going by the languages I have some knowledge of, that doesn't hold true for Portuguese, where the word "country" itself is masculine but the truth is different countries have different genders. I guess it would be the same for other latin languages? (at least for Spanish). German is also the same but the word "country" is neutral. I guess it does somewhat hold true for my native language, Hebrew, where all the words you specified but "house" are feminine. So I guess it might also hold true for Arabic then?
- causi 4y ago
  That makes sense, except for the fact that in English, gendering inanimate objects is nearly always female. If you have a busted computer, you might say "I'm gonna resolder this pad and then she'll run just fine" but you'd almost never say "I'm gonna reseat this connector and then he'll boot up".
dirtyid 4y ago
Countries are occasionally associated with genders even in English (mother/father land etc). India is commonly referred to as her. Quick research into why: >Bhārat Mātā ( Mother India in English) is a national personification of India (Bharat) as a mother goddess. I don't know how valid, TBH I use pronouns because it's rhetorically tedious to keep typing country name.
- sbaiddn 4y ago
  You could use "it" as a non gendered pronoun. But you don't have to. "it" is considered impolite, something you don't use for something you treasure. Furthermore English has a perfectly long history of referring to countries as shes. This has fallen in disuse in the past 50 years as we've gotten fussy about the sexes. But it is certainly not incorrect or foreign to English.
  - dirtyid 4y ago
    >"it" is considered impolite Basically this. I generally try to use variant of 2/3 letter country code instead of pronounces to reduce repetition, but IN/IND sounds awkward.
sbaiddn 4y ago
Until very recently non-humans were often referred to, in English, with gendered pronouns. This persists in English speaking countries and cultures other than US/UK. Countries have, historically, been identified as women not just in the written word but also in illustration, poetry, etc. The OP's relationship to his country is entirely on his terms not yours. Furthermore the role of pronouns are not to refer to people, but generally to refer to nouns. In some cultures it is considered rude to refer to a person as a pronoun. So OP shouldn't be using "India" repetitively (which would tire the reader/listener). One can use "it" to refer to "India", OP will prefers to refer to India as a "she" Some may find this backwards, or misogynistic. That's their problem.

Why are you referring to India using human pronouns ? He/her? You can just say “India”.

mperham 4y ago

Approximately 80% of the planet does not speak English at all. Be kind.

bamboozled 4y ago
I speak multiple languages and I was asking a question, not trying to be unkind. I asked the question because their English seemed so good to me that it seemed intentional, it also seemed unusual.
ryan_lane 4y ago
I think gendering a country is something that's done specifically if you're relatively native in English. To me it's the kind of thing I'd expect to hear from my grandparents. It's weird and old-fashioned. Even most news sources use the genderless "it" for countries nowadays. It's honestly a bit cringy to read.

rrrrrrrrrrrryan 4y ago

In languages with gendered nouns, countries, cars, boats, and houses are almost always female because they contain humans (and females have a womb). English doesn't have gendered nouns, but this linguistic quirk runs deep enough in human psychology that we do sometimes use female pronouns to describe these things. Examples: "She's a beauty" (of a car), or "America and her allies."

alostpuppy 4y ago
That is fascinating. It’s more or less like me trying to use the metric system.
sbaiddn 4y ago
"because they contain humans (and females have a womb)." While I like the theory, its cute, I dont know that that's true. L'automobile is male in Italian and Spanish. And its easy for a native speaker in either language to come up with numerous examples. In fact gender really is just grammar. We shouldn't see much into it trying to project ourselves into it. Otherwise, why can the same object have different genders through synonyms? Again: La macchina L'automobile. La yerba (granted in Spanish its lost its meaning as grass) El cesped La nave Il barco La embarcación El bote Or changes from the addition of a mere diminutive: Il banco La bancarella Il barco La barchetta Gender is just a classification, largely binary (although Spanish retains the neuter) that got the unfortunate sexual labels of male and female
- mdrzn 4y ago
  > L'automobile is male in Italian and Spanish. What? LA automobile is female. > Il barco La barchetta "IL barco" doesn't mean anything, it's "LA barca" which, again, is female. I'd say that generally speaking "it's female when they contain people" is correct, but of course not always (LO ufficio = the office).
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
tamirzb 4y ago
This sounds interesting but I don't think it holds true? Going by the languages I have some knowledge of, that doesn't hold true for Portuguese, where the word "country" itself is masculine but the truth is different countries have different genders. I guess it would be the same for other latin languages? (at least for Spanish). German is also the same but the word "country" is neutral. I guess it does somewhat hold true for my native language, Hebrew, where all the words you specified but "house" are feminine. So I guess it might also hold true for Arabic then?
causi 4y ago
That makes sense, except for the fact that in English, gendering inanimate objects is nearly always female. If you have a busted computer, you might say "I'm gonna resolder this pad and then she'll run just fine" but you'd almost never say "I'm gonna reseat this connector and then he'll boot up".

dirtyid 4y ago

Countries are occasionally associated with genders even in English (mother/father land etc). India is commonly referred to as her. Quick research into why: >Bhārat Mātā ( Mother India in English) is a national personification of India (Bharat) as a mother goddess. I don't know how valid, TBH I use pronouns because it's rhetorically tedious to keep typing country name.

sbaiddn 4y ago
You could use "it" as a non gendered pronoun. But you don't have to. "it" is considered impolite, something you don't use for something you treasure. Furthermore English has a perfectly long history of referring to countries as shes. This has fallen in disuse in the past 50 years as we've gotten fussy about the sexes. But it is certainly not incorrect or foreign to English.
- dirtyid 4y ago
  >"it" is considered impolite Basically this. I generally try to use variant of 2/3 letter country code instead of pronounces to reduce repetition, but IN/IND sounds awkward.

sbaiddn 4y ago

Until very recently non-humans were often referred to, in English, with gendered pronouns. This persists in English speaking countries and cultures other than US/UK. Countries have, historically, been identified as women not just in the written word but also in illustration, poetry, etc. The OP's relationship to his country is entirely on his terms not yours. Furthermore the role of pronouns are not to refer to people, but generally to refer to nouns. In some cultures it is considered rude to refer to a person as a pronoun. So OP shouldn't be using "India" repetitively (which would tire the reader/listener). One can use "it" to refer to "India", OP will prefers to refer to India as a "she" Some may find this backwards, or misogynistic. That's their problem.