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ysabetwordsmithThis poem came out of the November 5, 2019 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from kelkyag. It fills the "Gender Markers" square in my 11-1-19 card for the ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
transbingo fest. This poem has been posted in barter with janetmiles. It belongs to the series Monster House.
"In Language Gender Is Particularly Confusing"
The lurking shadow is
older than human language,
or at least, it has observed humans
before they began talking in more
than grunts and waved fists
in the area where it lurked.
Language had come later,
a raised eyebrow here,
a lilted vowel there.
The lurking shadow
has listened and learned,
words flowing like water,
soaking into its substance.
Its voice, when it speaks,
is the dry rustle of leaves
rubbing together in the wind.
It has learned the names of things --
so many names, so many things --
and let them go again when
they're not longer needed.
It remembers, though, when
it stops to think of the past.
In language, gender is
particularly confusing.
Why should a table be male
in German, female in French,
and castrated in English?
The lurking shadow does not know.
It has been called "he" and "she"
and "it' and other things as well.
The family it lives with now
seems to favor "he."
That is fine. So were
the other things. It's not
like the lurking shadow
has any of the sex parts
that the humans do.
It hasn't got a brain
or a larynx or a gonad.
It doesn't need any of those.
The lurking shadow is
a whisper in the darkness,
exactly as it is meant to be.
It doesn't understand gender,
but then it doesn't need to --
it can remember what the humans
said about the things they named.
Sometimes, when it sees one of
the lost ones wandering unnamed,
it whispers an old word into the wind.
Nobody knows where it comes from,
but then, they don't need to know that
in order to follow the hint to the library.
* * *
Notes:
"In language gender is particularly confusing. Why, please, should a table be male in German, female in French, and castrated in English?"
-- Marlene Dietrich
"Men and women are differentiated biologically in two ways that seem directly relevant to language. One has to do with the larynx, and the other with the brain."
kelkyag. It fills the "Gender Markers" square in my 11-1-19 card for the transbingo fest. This poem has been posted in barter with janetmiles. It belongs to the series Monster House."In Language Gender Is Particularly Confusing"
The lurking shadow is
older than human language,
or at least, it has observed humans
before they began talking in more
than grunts and waved fists
in the area where it lurked.
Language had come later,
a raised eyebrow here,
a lilted vowel there.
The lurking shadow
has listened and learned,
words flowing like water,
soaking into its substance.
Its voice, when it speaks,
is the dry rustle of leaves
rubbing together in the wind.
It has learned the names of things --
so many names, so many things --
and let them go again when
they're not longer needed.
It remembers, though, when
it stops to think of the past.
In language, gender is
particularly confusing.
Why should a table be male
in German, female in French,
and castrated in English?
The lurking shadow does not know.
It has been called "he" and "she"
and "it' and other things as well.
The family it lives with now
seems to favor "he."
That is fine. So were
the other things. It's not
like the lurking shadow
has any of the sex parts
that the humans do.
It hasn't got a brain
or a larynx or a gonad.
It doesn't need any of those.
The lurking shadow is
a whisper in the darkness,
exactly as it is meant to be.
It doesn't understand gender,
but then it doesn't need to --
it can remember what the humans
said about the things they named.
Sometimes, when it sees one of
the lost ones wandering unnamed,
it whispers an old word into the wind.
Nobody knows where it comes from,
but then, they don't need to know that
in order to follow the hint to the library.
* * *
Notes:
"In language gender is particularly confusing. Why, please, should a table be male in German, female in French, and castrated in English?"
-- Marlene Dietrich
"Men and women are differentiated biologically in two ways that seem directly relevant to language. One has to do with the larynx, and the other with the brain."
(no subject)
Date: 2019-12-09 11:53 am (UTC)And the seperate languages are "tonal"(?). Most men can't get a high enough pitch to say a lot of things in a natural sounding way in the female language and most women can't get low enough for the male language.
Probably not workable, but it would make an interesting twist.
also make things extra difficult for any trans folk...
(no subject)
Date: 2019-12-09 02:29 pm (UTC)There are languages with genderlects, but they are not separated by tone.
People might have to start speaking a yonal-genderlect language early, just to be able to hear and make all the neccesary sounds...
The Chanters of Tremaris did this as justification for ice call (ice-controllong musical magic) only being done by nuns. In the past, one of the other magics (fire, I think) had only been preformed by men for the same reason.
I'd live to see a language like that, but divided by species. Observant people can see proto-examples in cross-species socal groups (especially if members grow up in cross species environments and can understand and maybe even switch between species appropriate body language.)
(no subject)
Date: 2019-12-09 05:06 pm (UTC)(Just looked it up -- it's awkward, but evolving.)
Well ...
Date: 2019-12-09 08:04 pm (UTC)If they don't know much about linguistics, most people just alternate.
If they know more, they can do things like chopping the gender markers off the words.
Experts will hunt through related languages for more suitable encodings, or make something from scratch. Frex, any Romance language can be patched with neuter components borrowed from older versions of Latin. This is more natural and elegant than making something from scratch, which tends to be a bit of a kludge. But then pidgin is really a kludge, and it only takes 10-20 years to turn into a creole as kids grow up with it.
French is somewhat handicapped by nonlinguists believing it's possible to legislate language, which never works, and has left it with a massive gap between spoken and written French. But it continues to evolve despite their best efforts, so I'm not too concerned.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-12-09 09:19 pm (UTC)Well ...
Date: 2019-12-09 09:25 pm (UTC)Re: Well ...
Date: 2019-12-09 09:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-12-09 06:48 pm (UTC)and "it' and other things as well.'
Hey! I know that one...........
(no subject)
Date: 2019-12-10 04:34 pm (UTC)Well ...
Date: 2019-12-11 04:32 am (UTC)