Mom, Dad, or Parent? Lawmakers Rule on Gendered Words
2021-05-21
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1In the U.S. House of Representatives on January 4, 2021, Representative Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri closed a prayer to mark the swearing in of the 117th Congress.
2He changed the traditional "amen" and instead, said "amen and awoman."
3"Amen" contains the sound "men" but it is not connected to the English word "men," meaning adult males.
4The -men from "amen" is from a Hebrew word meaning "truth."
5The word is used at the end of a prayer to signify agreement with the prayer's message.
6But it also can be used to show agreement to the truth of any statement.
7The representative's words show the desire among the members of Congress to use gender-inclusive language.
8He may have thought the word "amen" excluded women, and changed it in the same way we would say, "men and women of the military."
9In grammatical terms, "gender" refers to how many languages divide mainly nouns and adjectives into one of three groups.
10The groups, or categories, are "feminine," "masculine" and "neutral."
11Feminine means related to the female sex.
12Masculine means related to the male sex.
13English does not use grammatical gender.
14Our words, however, do often speak directly to biological gender, a state of being either female or male.
15In America, increasingly, people are seeking to avoid language based in biological gender.
16The House Committee on Rules announced rules for the new Congress in January.
17The new rules demanded language changes to avoid terms considered sexist or discriminatory in other ways.
18The Rules committee explained that their goal in writing the new rules is to include all those who work with Congress and their families, including those who are nonbinary, identifying as neither male nor female.
19The words they chose to avoid include such words as "father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, uncle, aunt ... nephew, niece, husband, wife, ... grandson, or grand-daughter."
20Instead, the rule calls for using ''parent, child, sibling, parent's sibling, ... sibling's child, spouse, ... or grandchild".
21These guidelines only restrict Congress' documented language.
22The use of "gendered" words in speech is not part of the new rules.
23This was evidenced on January 13, when Nancy Pelosi opened debate on impeaching President Donald Trump using gendered language.
24"I stand before you as a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a daughter," Pelosi said.
25"A daughter whose father proudly served in this Congress."
26The new House Rules also identified words to be used in connection with job or occupational positions.
27For example, the leader of a committee will be described as the Chair.
28Words such as "member" or "delegate" replace the pronouns "she" and "he."
29And, "herself" or "himself" is replaced by ''themself."
30Changes like these are becoming more common.
31In 2019, several language expert groups named "they" both the Word of the Year and the Word of the Decade.
32The American Dialect Society named "(my) pronouns" the Word of the Year for 2019.
33Colin Surname, a singer and songwriter who lives in Britain, has written a song to teach us about using the singular pronoun, "they."
34Singular 'they' is really easy;
35Singular 'they' is here to stay.
36It's been around since 1350 and it's a word you already say.
37Think when you don't know someone's gender,
38So you refer to them as 'they.'
39I just did it when I said "them" then
40What a convenient display
41And that's Everyday Grammar!
42I'm Jill Robbins.
1In the U.S. House of Representatives on January 4, 2021, Representative Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri closed a prayer to mark the swearing in of the 117th Congress. He changed the traditional "amen" and instead, said "amen and awoman." 2"Amen" contains the sound "men" but it is not connected to the English word "men," meaning adult males. The -men from "amen" is from a Hebrew word meaning "truth." The word is used at the end of a prayer to signify agreement with the prayer's message. But it also can be used to show agreement to the truth of any statement. 3The representative's words show the desire among the members of Congress to use gender-inclusive language. He may have thought the word "amen" excluded women, and changed it in the same way we would say, "men and women of the military." 4Grammatical and biological gender 5In grammatical terms, "gender" refers to how many languages divide mainly nouns and adjectives into one of three groups. The groups, or categories, are "feminine," "masculine" and "neutral." Feminine means related to the female sex. Masculine means related to the male sex. 6English does not use grammatical gender. Our words, however, do often speak directly to biological gender, a state of being either female or male. In America, increasingly, people are seeking to avoid language based in biological gender. 7The House Committee on Rules announced rules for the new Congress in January. The new rules demanded language changes to avoid terms considered sexist or discriminatory in other ways. The Rules committee explained that their goal in writing the new rules is to include all those who work with Congress and their families, including those who are nonbinary, identifying as neither male nor female. The words they chose to avoid include such words as "father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, uncle, aunt ... nephew, niece, husband, wife, ... grandson, or grand-daughter." Instead, the rule calls for using ''parent, child, sibling, parent's sibling, ... sibling's child, spouse, ... or grandchild". 8Guidelines for written rules 9These guidelines only restrict Congress' documented language. The use of "gendered" words in speech is not part of the new rules. 10This was evidenced on January 13, when Nancy Pelosi opened debate on impeaching President Donald Trump using gendered language. 11"I stand before you as a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a daughter," Pelosi said. "A daughter whose father proudly served in this Congress." 12Honoring all gender identities 13The new House Rules also identified words to be used in connection with job or occupational positions. For example, the leader of a committee will be described as the Chair. Words such as "member" or "delegate" replace the pronouns "she" and "he." And, "herself" or "himself" is replaced by ''themself." 14Changes like these are becoming more common. In 2019, several language expert groups named "they" both the Word of the Year and the Word of the Decade. The American Dialect Society named "(my) pronouns" the Word of the Year for 2019. 15Colin Surname, a singer and songwriter who lives in Britain, has written a song to teach us about using the singular pronoun, "they." 16Singular 'they' is really easy; 17Singular 'they' is here to stay. 18It's been around since 1350 and it's a word you already say. 19Think when you don't know someone's gender, 20So you refer to them as 'they.' 21I just did it when I said "them" then 22What a convenient display 23And that's Everyday Grammar! 24I'm Jill Robbins. 25You can read more about the use of "they" in our previous stories: 26Problems with Pronouns and Gender 27'They' Wins as Linguists' Word of the Year 28Words of the Year: 'They,' 'Existential,' 'Climate Emergency' 29Jill Robbins wrote this lesson for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor. 30_________________________________________________________________ 31Words in This Story 32masculine - adj. of, relating to, or suited to men or boys 33feminine - adj. of, relating to, or suited to women or girls 34sibling - n. a brother or sister 35impeach - v. to charge (a public official) with a crime done while in office 36How do you change your language to honor the different gender identities of those around you? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.