{"id":12304,"date":"2019-02-21T09:00:26","date_gmt":"2019-02-21T14:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/?p=12304"},"modified":"2019-02-09T09:05:24","modified_gmt":"2019-02-09T14:05:24","slug":"inclusive-language-the-rae-says-not-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/inclusive-language-the-rae-says-not-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Inclusive Language: The RAE Says Not Now"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last month during a conference at the University of Salamanca, the director of the RAE or the <em>Real Academia\u00a0Espa\u00f1ola<\/em> stated that the RAE was not going to impose inclusive language with new terms such as\u00a0<em>miembras<\/em> and\u00a0<em>todes<\/em> instead of\u00a0<em>miembros\u00a0<\/em>and <em>todos.<\/em>\u00a0In this post, we will explore who the RAE is and what they do, and the debates of making Spanish inclusive.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_12305\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright post-item__attachment\"><a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/wGgYM6\" aria-label=\"RAE 350x233\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12305\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12305\"  alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"233\" \/ src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/02\/RAE-350x233.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/02\/RAE-350x233.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/02\/RAE-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/02\/RAE-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/02\/RAE.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-12305\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo taken by deliam@ found on Flickr.com with license CC BY 2.0<\/p><\/div>\n<h3>What is the RAE?<\/h3>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rae.es\/\">RAE<\/a> is the\u00a0<em>Real Academia\u00a0Espa\u00f1ola\u00a0<\/em>was founded in 1713 in Madrid. It is inspired by the\u00a0Acad\u00e9mie Fran\u00e7aise who deals with all things related to the French language. For over 300 years, the RAE has been the authority of the Spanish language in regards to changes in spelling, new words, and the publication of the most complete and official Spanish dictionary. Its main objective is\u00a0<em>velar por que la lengua espa\u00f1ola, en su continua adaptaci\u00f3n a las necesidades de los hablantes, no quiebre su esencial unidad\u00a0<\/em>(to ensure that the spanish language, in its continuous adaptation to the needs of the speakers, doesn&#8217;t lose its essential unity). Source: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rae.es\/la-institucion\/historia\/origenes\">RAE website<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In addition to the RAE, there is also the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.asale.org\/\"><em>Asociaci\u00f3n de Academias de la Lengua Espa\u00f1ola<\/em><\/a>\u00a0whose members are the different language associations of all Spanish speaking countries. This association has a similar objective, but with an emphasis more on the\u00a0<em>ling\u00fc\u00edstica panhisp\u00e1nica<\/em> of Latin America.<\/p>\n<p>The following video explains in more detail what the RAE does and the upcoming projects of the\u00a0<em>Asociacion de Academias de la Lengua Espa\u00f1ola.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"La casa de las palabras (Real Academia Espa\u00f1ola)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3qKRB2RXod4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>Lenguaje Inclusivo<\/h3>\n<p>There has been a push to make Spanish a more inclusive language for everyone. The discussion mainly deals with it being more inclusive towards women, however, the overall idea is to make it less gender-specific so that anyone, regardless of what gender or sex they identify with, can feel part of. For as long as I have memory, I have heard people debate about the use of\u00a0<em>presidenta\u00a0<\/em>(president),\u00a0<em>arquitecta<\/em>\u00a0(architect),<em> ingeniera<\/em>\u00a0(engineer),<em> secretario<\/em>\u00a0(secretary),<em> etc.\u00a0<\/em>Some people feel that you can easily change the e or o to an a to make it feminine (as is the case for\u00a0<em>presidenta<\/em>), but others feel that the words should stay as is and be used regardless of gender. One example of this is\u00a0<em>ingeniero\u00a0<\/em>for both male and female. After much debate in these words, particularly words related to careers, the RAE eventually accepted it and put in the dictionary.<\/p>\n<p>The conversation about inclusive language is now dealing with more general terms such as\u00a0<em>todos\/as, chicos\/as, miembras\/os.\u00a0<\/em>The idea is for the RAE to include these words in the dictionary in a political attempt to make the language more gender equal. The RAE, however, disagrees saying that the organization cannot force this change. They can consider making it part of the official language once it &#8220;catches on&#8221; with Spanish speakers in the same way that\u00a0<em>presidenta, ingeniera,\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0<em>arquitecta<\/em> came to be accepted. The director of the RAE went so far as to point out the mistake of forcing the word\u00a0<em>todes<\/em> when the E in some cases is used for masculine (for example,\u00a0<em>presidente).\u00a0<\/em>His explanation is below.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/youtu.be\/WHYjWKrF1Ig<\/p>\n<h3>The counter-argument<\/h3>\n<p>Many argue that the Spanish language has excluded women for hundreds of years, and more needs to be done to push for equality. Others argue that this has to be done in a smaller scale and eventually the change to the official language will come. The question is do we need someone to come and tell us to be inclusive or do we leave that to time? Has time really helped achieve gender equality?<\/p>\n<p>There is also the issue of just gender in itself. In English, for example, we do not have gender-specific ending to words. This means that the language is, in theory, more inclusive to women as much as it is to people who are transexual, transgender, and those who choose to be gender neutral. How can we deal with this issue in Spanish? Should we stop using\u00a0<em>la\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0lo as well?<\/p>\n<p>Below is a debate that took place during a newscast in Argentina.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"La Real Academia rechaza lenguaje inclusivo\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rMK8lObxtes?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Do you know of other languages with a similar debate? Do you think the RAE is right in not adding these terms to the dictionary?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"350\" height=\"233\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/02\/RAE-350x233.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/02\/RAE-350x233.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/02\/RAE-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/02\/RAE-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/02\/RAE.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p>Last month during a conference at the University of Salamanca, the director of the RAE or the Real Academia\u00a0Espa\u00f1ola stated that the RAE was not going to impose inclusive language with new terms such as\u00a0miembras and\u00a0todes instead of\u00a0miembros\u00a0and todos.\u00a0In this post, we will explore who the RAE is and what they do, and the debates&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/inclusive-language-the-rae-says-not-now\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":12305,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[74,509935,506074,122,222988,143],"class_list":["post-12304","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-gender","tag-inclusive-language","tag-language-use","tag-politics","tag-rae","tag-spanish"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12304"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12308,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12304\/revisions\/12308"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}