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[–] 21 points 3 weeks ago (8 children)

Would be great if we could figure out how to do non-binary or non-gendered speech in Ukrainian. Grammatical gender is a pain in the ass.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 weeks ago* (7 children)

    Is this really a shortcoming of the Ukrainian language?

    TIL

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  • [–] 19 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

    Yeah, Slavic languages have grammatical gender. It's not like in German or French with the articles, but the endings of adjectives and past tense verbs change to agree with nouns and pronouns.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 child)
  • [–] 4 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

    I really have no idea what that would look and sound like. We have a neuter gender, but it's not really fitting to talk about people (like using "it" in English). I think we do need a new gender neutral suffix, yes, but I'm not qualified enough to make an attempt at devising one.

    Or maybe we could just start using plural, like "they" in English. It would sound odd, but not as odd as a brand new type of ending.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

    Don't they have a neutral gender?

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  • [–] 3 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

    Neuter, not neutral. Like "it" in English or "das" article in German. Not really a good fit to talk about people.

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