Changing the Language the Easy Way...

[roseembolism]

In a recent debate on gender-neutral language and whether it's a good idea to try to change a language, someone noted that top-down language changes rarely work well.  He pointed out that the Chinese goverment has tried to insert a female third person pronoun into Chinese in order to get the "he" "she" distinction.  He noted it hasn't caught on so far.

I figure that's probably because they're going about it the wrong way, via government mandate.  A better way would be to use that new pronoun in an uproariously funny Coca-Cola advertising campaign. then have it picked up in a movie by a heartthrob or a comedian. Done properly, it will first duck into the language as a bit of trendy slang, and get used by kids as a self-referential coolness, and within a generation it will be in all the Chinese dictionaries. 

'Cause if you really want to change a culture's way of speaking, one should go to the experts.  IMHO.  IYNWIMAITYD.  LOL.

Comments

[deirdremoon.livejournal.com]

I'm still of the Honorverse school of thinking; each gender assumes its own gender when speaking in indefinites. I would say: "Any captain worth her salt wouldn't do that." A guy would say: "Any captain worth his salt wouldn't do that." Neither of us is being sexist (which should be a relief to the conscientious guys who tongue-twist to try not to offend their female counterparts!).

[deirdremoon.livejournal.com]

That said, I think your delivery method is *exactly* how to get the change noticed in the first place. :)

[fairegoddess.livejournal.com]

IAWTC. XD

[bobmungovan.livejournal.com]

Brilliant!

/Guinness commercial