Why does it need a vowel at all? Latin (lat-teen)
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I realize youâre joking, but it seems like more thought should have gone into this. For example, a good idea would have been to look at what native speakers of Spanish do and come up with something modeled on that. I have no idea what the result would have been, but I doubt it would have been sticking an x on the end. And maybe then it would have been more palatable to the people that it is being used to describe.
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The concept is not the problem (at least not for me), itâs the execution. Latino and latina are just natural words for native speakers. Latinx isnât. It looks like a uniquely American invention (presumably Americans who speak Spanish). And I guess you could argue that since this is really a term meant to be used in America, that would be appropriate. The problem is that a lot of people just donât like it.
And I think for many of those people the problem is not really the concept, itâs how they decided to apply it.
You can get rid of Latinx and preserve the concept by just using something else instead.
Based on about 1 min of googling it seems to me like the -e would have been a much better solution.
I know, right? The âLatin Grammiesâ have been a thing for ages, itâs a gender-neutral term that seems to work well.
The author of the tweet you posted? For example.
See the author of the tweet mentioned this like it means something when all it actually means is that there exists at least one Spanish speaker, somewhere on the planet, who thought it was a good idea at some point. It doesnât change who advocates for it (annoying, mostly-white college-educated liberals) and who doesnât like it (ordinary Spanish speakers) in the present day.
I donât either. But that doesnât really matter that much. It looks like it was tried, and apparently a good number of people who the term is intended to describe donât like it. So, I donât think itâs the worst idea in the world to keep the concept and just try some different way of applying it.
That more or less applies to âLatinxâ as well.
I thought we were talking about English speakers and what terms they should use? Seems like thereâs already a handy gender-neutral word âLatinâ thatâs been in use for a while without much controversy.
That is true. However, the term will also be used by and to describe many people who speak Spanish as well as English. So you want to get some buy in from them also.
Sure, Iâm not about to advise Spanish speakers what terms they should use. Iâm just saying that among clueless English-speaking shitlibs like myself, âLatinâ seems to be a non-controversial English term thatâs gender-neutral and doesnât annoy broad sections of the Spanish-speaking community. Itâs like how I use âItalianâ instead of âItaliano.â
Kinda outside the scope of the thread but I I think for Spanish speaking communities, finding a usable language hack is important. Individual and groups of firefighters and lawyers are gendered male while teachers and nurses are gendered female. Not by rule just common usage. What words politicians use when pandering for votes might not be that important, but stuff like this really is imo.
So maybe for some Spanish speaking Americans, itâs more of a deeper and important issue than just the word Latinx.
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As I understand if, âLatinxâ originated with Spanish-speaking American queer activists. My guess is that the x was chosen because it started being used online first without thinking about how it sounded when spoken and the x was perceived as being cool.
This doesnât seem like the work of out-of-touch white liberal elites. It feels like people knowingly choosing to fight an uphill battle in the public eye. White liberal elites are the people most willing to try to be allies on that front. It gets more noticed when they try.
Oh. I didnât know what you meant, no. Another example that I think is dumb, although itâs more fringe than Latinx, is the move to use phrases like âpeople who menstruateâ instead of âwomenâ. I understand the point but - are you sitting down for this - there have always existed women who donât menstruate. Up until the trans-rights movement, nobody thought that saying âwomen menstruateâ was exclusionary of post-menopausal women, or women who have had hysterectomies, or donât menstruate for whatever other reason. Everyone understood that saying âwomenâ is flexible and can mean âwomen generally, but not necessarily the exclusive set of all women in the worldâ. The idea that we always have to mean the latter when we use the word âwomenâ is nothing but an invention of the most pedantic people on the planet. Itâs the Star Trek Into Darkness controversy but for sociology nerds instead of sci-fi nerds. And it aims to be inclusive but winds up being alienating.
But I mean, that guy in the tweet you posted is the one out here telling us weâre âcowardsâ and ârailing against inclusivityâ if we donât want to use Latinx.
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I may have overstated it. The women Iâm dating says groups of both sexes always get the masculine ending. While individuals of unknown gender are commonly referred to by the assumed gender of the profession. Iâve heard maestras for my 5yo stepsons teachers but I guess preschool teachers are different. She also hasnât thought about it that much and thinks itâs dumb to care about so I might need to ask around to confirm my own curiosity. I think men might speak differently.
Her two roommates are transitioning females so Iâll have to ask them their views on rhe whole thing.
Well, thank you for sending me down this rabbit hole:
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Itâs kind of interesting how if you had a poll of 1000 Americans saying they didnât like using they/them to refer to a generic person or insisted on using âheâ when referring to a hypothetical doctor everybody would point out how that person is simply a regressive simpleton who canât change with the times, but if you do the exact same thing with Spanish speaking respondents itâs a sign that inclusive language is political correctness gone TOO FAR
Well, of course I feel more willing to proscribe how English should be used and what terms are retrograde. If you ask me about how appropriate words like âLatinxâ or âLatinoâ are, Iâm more willing to defer to an opinion poll of Spanish speakers and I donât think thatâs terribly unreasonable. If you threw a bunch of Korean words at me and asked me if theyâre offensive, Iâd have little choice but to ask some Korean people and rely on their judgement.
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lolol the snark in here is great
Fossil fuel for reciprocating piston engines equipped with spark plugs
Container of gasoline petrol fossil fuel benzine gas a mixture of refined combustible organic liquid compounds for reciprocating piston engines equipped with spark plugs
Should this substance be called âgasolineâ or âpetrolâ? See the talk page for a debate about the total number of English speakers in the world (and whether Americans should be considered an important part of it); the relative utility of search engines, closely followed by the unleashing of various pie charts and tables; claims that UK-wikipedians are set to re-establish the British Empire by moving pages to British spellings, counter-claims that Americans who want âgasolineâ are being their usual nationalistic/culturally-imperialistic selves; RFC nominations, page-move warring and deletion debates, failed attempts to achieve compromise via some truly freaky article names (far beyond the suggested âGasoline (petrol)â and âPetrol (gasoline)â) and even the creation of templates to separate the article into sections individually tailored for both Commonwealth and American English tastes. Gasoline has been settled on for now, in part because that was the articleâs title originally, but the fallout has yet to settle.Finally, while not trying to pour fuel over the fire, it should be noted that in Arab countries (its birthplace, after all), and a lot of Europe, people call it âbenzineâ.
Container ofgasolinepetrolfossil fuelbenzinegasa mixture of refined combustible organic liquid compounds for reciprocating piston engines equipped with spark plugs
December 25
Should we or should we not list the birth of Jesus of Nazareth under âbirthsâ? If so, should his birth date be 1 BC or 1 AD? Or 1 BCE or 1 CE? Or even year zero? And should it be listed as Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus Christ, just Jesus, etc.?
Baltimore
Is the cityâs climate subtropical or continental? Are there a couple snowstorms a year, or several? Do some winters bring less than an inch of snow, or only a trace? How often does it get below 10 °F (â12 °C) or, for that matter, 5 °F (â15 °C), or even 0 °F (â18 °C)? Is Januaryâs average low 29 or 23 °F (â2 or â5 °C)? And just which weather station most accurately describes Baltimoreâs climate? These seemingly easily verifiable facts have been the subject of a slow-motion edit war for many months, with occasional language-parsing jockeying for position (for example, âHowever, winter warm fronts can bring brief periods of springlike weather, while Arctic fronts drop temperatures into the teensâ vs. âHowever, winter warm fronts can bring periods of springlike weather, while Arctic fronts can briefly drop temperatures into the teensâ) continuing to this day.
List of numbers that are always odd
The number 3 was being considered as possibly being not odd. Page protection was needed to halt the heated debate. User:Wikâs correction of a misspelling of hypochondriacs was re-reverted no less than three times. Supposedly as a means to illustrate the ludicrousness of the subject, various examples such as âthe atomic numbers of gold and silver, but not their sumâ and âthe number of days in a year (except leap years)â were added to the list. Later in the edit war, no less than two thousand five hundred numbers of debated oddness (every second integer from 1 to 4999) were added and removed, four hundred ninety eight of them repeatedly before the edit war was solved by the articleâs deletion after a VfD vote. An ancient mirror website still had a version available, though, so itâs been rescued for posterity: User:ConMan/List of numbers that are always odd
Was there an edit war on the edit war page over use of âlamestâ?