Editing Gender (section)

=== Languages ===
* [[Grammatical gender]] is a property of some languages in which every [[noun]] is assigned a gender, often with no direct relation to its meaning. For example, the word for "girl" is ''[[:es:muchacha|muchacha]]'' (grammatically feminine) in [[Spanish language|Spanish]],<ref name="post" /> ''[[:de:Mädchen|Mädchen]]'' (grammatically neuter) or the older ''[[:de:Maid|Maid]]'' (grammatically feminine)<ref>{{Cite web|title=Maid|url=https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Maid|access-date=2023-12-14|website=wiktionary.org}}</ref> in [[German language|German]], and ''[[:ga:cailín|cailín]]'' (grammatically masculine) in [[Irish language|Irish]].<ref name="post" />
* The term "[[grammatical gender]]" is often applied to more complex [[noun class]] systems. This is especially true when a noun class system includes masculine and feminine as well as some other non-gender features like animate, edible, manufactured, and so forth. An example of the latter is found in the [[Dyirbal language]]. Other gender systems exist with no distinction between masculine and feminine; examples include a distinction between animate and inanimate things, which is common to, amongst others, [[Ojibwe language|Ojibwe]],<ref>Valentine, J. Randolph, 2001, p. 114.</ref> [[Basque language|Basque]] and [[Hittite language|Hittite]]; and systems distinguishing between people (whether human or divine) and everything else, which are found in the [[Dravidian languages]] and [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]].
* A sample of the [[World Atlas of Language Structures]] by [[Greville G Corbett]] found that fewer than half of the 258 languages sampled have any system of [[grammatical gender]].<ref name="The expression of gender">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R2jnBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA124|title=The expression of gender|date=2014|editor-first1=Greville G. |editor-last1=Corbett |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton|isbn=978-3-11-030733-7|location=Berlin|pages=124|oclc=913049820|access-date=2 September 2021|archive-date=17 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220217115731/https://www.worldcat.org/title/expression-of-gender/oclc/913049820|url-status=live}}</ref> Of the remaining languages that feature grammatical gender, over half have more than the minimum requirement of two genders.<ref name="The expression of gender"/> Grammatical gender may be based on [[sex|biological sex]] (which is the most common basis for grammatical gender), [[animacy]], or other features, and may be based on a combination of these classes.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R2jnBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA110|title=The expression of gender|date=2014|editor-first1=Greville G. |editor-last1=Corbett |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton|isbn=978-3-11-030733-7|location=Berlin|pages=110|oclc=913049820|access-date=2 September 2021|archive-date=17 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220217115731/https://www.worldcat.org/title/expression-of-gender/oclc/913049820|url-status=live}}</ref> One of the four genders of the [[Dyirbal language]] consists mainly of fruit and vegetables.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R2jnBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA115|title=The expression of gender|date=2014|editor-first1=Greville G. |editor-last1=Corbett |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton|isbn=978-3-11-030733-7|location=Berlin|pages=115|oclc=913049820|access-date=2 September 2021|archive-date=17 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220217115730/https://www.worldcat.org/title/expression-of-gender/oclc/913049820|url-status=live}}</ref> Languages of the [[Niger–Congo languages|Niger-Congo]] language family can have as many as twenty genders, including plants, places, and shapes.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/913049820|title=The expression of gender|date=2014|editor-first1=Greville G. |editor-last1=Corbett |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton|isbn=978-3-11-030733-7|location=Berlin|oclc=913049820}}</ref>
* Many languages include terms that are used asymmetrically in reference to men and women. Concern that current language may be biased in favor of men has led some authors in recent times to argue for the use of a more [[Gender-neutral language in English|gender-neutral vocabulary]] in English and other languages.<ref name="Lindqvist2018">{{cite journal |last1=Lindqvist |first1=Anna |last2=Renström |first2=Emma Aurora |last3=Sendén |first3=Marie Gustafsson |date=18 October 2019 |s2cid-access=free |title=Reducing a Male Bias in Language? Establishing the Efficiency of Three Different Gender-Fair Language Strategies |journal=[[Sex Roles (journal)|Sex Roles]] |volume=81 |issue=1–2 |pages=109–117 |doi=10.1007/s11199-018-0974-9|s2cid=255011887 |doi-access=free }}</ref>
* Several languages attest the use of different vocabulary by men and women, to differing degrees. See, for instance, [[Gender differences in Japanese]]. The oldest documented language, [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]], records a distinctive sub-language, [[Emesal]], only used by female speakers.<ref name="Guichard2023">{{Cite news |title=Emesal: The Language of Women and Lamenters in Cuneiform Literature in the Early Second Millennium BC in Mesopotamia |url=https://ilaraen.hypotheses.org/4611 |website=hypotheses.org |last=Guichard |first=Michaël |date=31 May 2023 |access-date=4 November 2023 |language=en}}</ref> Conversely, many [[Indigenous Australian languages]] have distinctive registers with a limited [[lexicon]] used by men in the presence of their mothers-in-law (see [[Avoidance speech]]).<ref>{{cite book |last=Dixon |first=R. M. W. |year=1980 |chapter=Speech and song styles: Avoidance styles |title=The languages of Australia |volume=Section 3.3 |pages=58–59 |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press }}</ref> As well, quite a few [[sign language]]s have a gendered distinction due to boarding schools segregated by gender, such as [[Irish Sign Language]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Irish Sign Language|url=https://www.irishdeafsociety.ie/irish-sign-language/|access-date=2020-07-28|website=www.irishdeafsociety.ie}}</ref>
* Several languages such as [[Persian language|Persian]]<ref name="post">{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/12/15/guide-how-gender-neutral-language-is-developing-around-world/ |title=A Guide to How Gender-Neutral Language is Developing Around the World |last=Berger |first=Miriam |date=December 15, 2019 |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=April 25, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200108223442/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/12/15/guide-how-gender-neutral-language-is-developing-around-world/ |archive-date=January 8, 2020}}</ref> or [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]] are gender-neutral. In Persian the same word is used in reference to men and women. Verbs, adjectives and nouns are not gendered. (See [[Gender-neutrality in genderless languages]]).
* Several languages employ different ways to refer to people where there are three or more genders, such as [[Navajo language|Navajo]]<ref name="Nimmo2019">{{Cite news |title=Navajo Nation's LGBTQ Pride Event Celebrates A Return To The Culture's History |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2019/07/11/738099923/navajo-nations-lgbtq-pride-event-celebrates-a-return-to-the-culture-s-history |publisher=[[NPR]] |last=Nimmo |first=Cayla |date=14 July 2023 |access-date=3 November 2023 |language=en}}</ref>