{"id":1699,"date":"2021-12-16T06:29:28","date_gmt":"2021-12-16T11:29:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acjt.ca\/?p=1699"},"modified":"2021-12-16T06:29:28","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T11:29:28","slug":"how-to-introduce-the-inclusive-they-to-your-clients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acjt.ca\/en\/juriscribe\/how-to-introduce-the-inclusive-they-to-your-clients\/","title":{"rendered":"How to introduce the inclusive \u201cthey\u201d to your clients"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

How to introduce the inclusive \u201cthey\u201d to your clients<\/strong><\/p>\n

Barbara McClintock, MA, Certified Translator and Certified Terminologist*<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

French-to-English translators work for French-speaking clients, and some are slowly adopting inclusive writing (l\u2019\u00e9criture \u00e9pic\u00e8ne<\/em>) in French. It is easier to do so in English, which is considered a gender-neutral language compared with the Romance languages which are gendered languages.<\/p>\n

Your French-speaking clients may not know that the use of \u201cthey\u201d as an inclusive pronoun has a long history. The inclusive or singular \u201cthey\u201d became more popular in Canada in recent years following the recognition that gender is a separate concept from sex. The pronoun \u201cthey,\u201d which is part of efforts to make English more respectful of diversity, was selected as Merriam-Webster\u2019s word of the year in 2019. M-W also notes that the nonbinary sense of \u201cthey\u201d was added to its dictionary in September 2019.1 <\/sup><\/p>\n

It can be confusing to pick the correct pronoun to use when addressing someone you have never met, which is not surprising given the number of possible pronouns and genders. Some of these include he\/she; they\/their\/them\/themselves; ze\/hir; xe\/xem; hy\/hym and co\/cos.2<\/sup> There are at least 15 different non-binary genders alone ranging from agender (no gender) to pangender (having many or all genders).3<\/sup> It\u2019s advisable to ask the individual which pronoun they normally use. As you can see, he\/she was replaced in the previous sentence by the inclusive \u201cthey.\u201d Moreover, it takes a plural verb, which sounds more natural than a singular verb to English speakers and is based on Justice Canada\u2019s recommendations:<\/p>\n

For example, . . . the person against whom the objection is made, where\u00a0they wish\u00a0<\/strong>to present\u00a0their<\/strong>\u00a0position.4<\/sup><\/p>\n

As we have seen above, \u201cthey\u201d is not the only pronoun to refer to a person. Fortunately, there is a simple solution for everybody: the inclusive \u201cthey\u201d (including the pronouns their, them, themselves). Just be careful not to call a law firm \u201cthey.\u201d Although firms tend to have long names, such as Desjardins Ducharme, Stein, Monast, they are singular in English:<\/p>\n

DDSM was a Quebec firm headquartered in Montreal. In the early 2000s, it merged with XYZ.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer for the masculine form?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The other day, a report crossed my desk containing the old disclaimer, \u201cLe masculin est utilis\u00e9 afin d\u2019all\u00e9ger le contenu.\u201d I have dropped such disclaimers in the past because they do not apply to the English translation. By including the disclaimer, the client assumes that the masculine form can be used with impunity. This indicates that the client is not up-to-date with inclusive writing, such as the inclusive \u201cthey.\u201d In such a case, you may want to send a note to the client if you think it is appropriate to do so, e.g., \u201cThe inclusive they is used to be gender neutral and to simplify the text.\u201d At the very least, it will explain your style choice to the client and perhaps even nudge them towards considering a more gender-neutral style in the original French document. Moreover, I\u2019ve heard that some English-to-French translators add a note for their clients in which they explain that some formulations are used in a spirit of equality (\u201ccertaines formulations sont l\u00e0 dans un but d\u2019\u00e9galitarisme<\/em>\u201d).<\/p>\n

* The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Merriam-Webster, https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/words-at-play\/woty2019-top-looked-up-words-they<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Being Non-Binary<\/em>, https:\/\/www.lgbthero.org.uk\/being-non-binary?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIu7bC_-KJ8gIVlMqGCh2t0wXVEAAYASAAEgKx6fD_BwE<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  3. Ibid.<\/li>\n
  4. Justice Canada Legistics<\/em>, https:\/\/www.justice.gc.ca\/eng\/rp-pr\/csj-sjc\/legis-redact\/legistics\/p1p32.html<\/a>. Date accessed:\u00a02021-08-06.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Further articles about \u201cthey\u201d<\/p>\n

    The Editors\u2019 Weekly<\/em>, The Singular \u201cThey\u201d\u00a0\u2014 <\/strong>Conjugations and Some Particularities<\/p>\n

    https:\/\/blog.editors.ca\/?p=6453<\/a><\/p>\n

    The Editors\u2019 Weekly<\/em>, Sex, Gender and Pronouns; Using the Correct Pronouns for Inclusiveness<\/p>\n

    https:\/\/blog.editors.ca\/?p=7333<\/a><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u00a0 How to introduce the inclusive \u201cthey\u201d to your clients Barbara McClintock, MA, Certified Translator and Certified Terminologist*   French-to-English translators work for French-speaking clients, and some are slowly adopting inclusive writing (l\u2019\u00e9criture \u00e9pic\u00e8ne) in French. It is easier to do so in English, which…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bulletins","category-juriscribe"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acjt.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acjt.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acjt.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acjt.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acjt.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1699"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/acjt.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1700,"href":"https:\/\/acjt.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1699\/revisions\/1700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acjt.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acjt.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acjt.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}