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The Chinese language is largely gender-neutral and possesses few linguistic gender markers.<ref>Wikipedia contributors, "Gender neutrality in genderless languages," in ''Wikipedia: the Free Encyclopedia'', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_neutrality_in_genderless_languages, accessed 1 February 2018.</ref> Unlike Romantic languages, such as Spanish, Italian, and French, nouns are not gender-specific. For instance, the feminine la familia (the family) or the masculine el libro (the book) in Spanish would be rendered in Chinese as the gender-neutral 家 (jiā) for family and 書 (shū) for book. To make specific gender denotation for a noun in Chinese, one may add either 男 (nán - male) or 女 (nǚ - female) at the beginning of the word (e.g. the word for doctor (醫生; yī shēng) could be changed to女醫生 to denote a female doctor), although the common practice generally is to use the gender-neutral form. One of the few instances where gender is denoted in Chinese is the written form of the third-person pronoun 他 (tā). Traditionally, 他was used to represent both he and she, but a relatively new character, 她, is now more commonly used for “she,” with the addition of the female character, 女 (rather than 人 (rén), for “person”), as the initial radical. This differentiation between 他and 她is only applied in written Chinese; in spoken Chinese, 他and 她are both pronounced identically as “tā.”<br> | The Chinese language is largely gender-neutral and possesses few linguistic gender markers.<ref>Wikipedia contributors, "Gender neutrality in genderless languages," in ''Wikipedia: the Free Encyclopedia'', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_neutrality_in_genderless_languages, accessed 1 February 2018.</ref> Unlike Romantic languages, such as Spanish, Italian, and French, nouns are not gender-specific. For instance, the feminine la familia (the family) or the masculine el libro (the book) in Spanish would be rendered in Chinese as the gender-neutral 家 (jiā) for family and 書 (shū) for book. To make specific gender denotation for a noun in Chinese, one may add either 男 (nán - male) or 女 (nǚ - female) at the beginning of the word (e.g. the word for doctor (醫生; yī shēng) could be changed to女醫生 to denote a female doctor), although the common practice generally is to use the gender-neutral form. One of the few instances where gender is denoted in Chinese is the written form of the third-person pronoun 他 (tā). Traditionally, 他was used to represent both he and she, but a relatively new character, 她, is now more commonly used for “she,” with the addition of the female character, 女 (rather than 人 (rén), for “person”), as the initial radical. This differentiation between 他and 她is only applied in written Chinese; in spoken Chinese, 他and 她are both pronounced identically as “tā.”<br> | ||
Due to its late emergence into written Chinese, the third-person female pronoun 她is unlikely to appear in the text of historic genealogical records. One way to identify whether an individual is male or female is to look for the female radical 女 (nǚ) in the given name, but it should be noted that not all female names contain 女, and there are some male names that may also contain the 女 radical. In Chinese genealogical records, female names are often not fully recorded, but are typically recorded only as the surname followed by the character 氏 (shì), a character which can roughly be translated as “clan,” “surname,” or “maiden name.” Therefore, a record with an individual named 陳氏 (chén shì) would refer to a woman from the Chen (陳) clan or could also be translated as “Ms. Chen,” with Chen being her maiden name. | Due to its late emergence into written Chinese, the third-person female pronoun 她is unlikely to appear in the text of historic genealogical records. One way to identify whether an individual is male or female is to look for the female radical 女 (nǚ) in the given name, but it should be noted that not all female names contain 女, and there are some male names that may also contain the 女 radical. In Chinese genealogical records, female names are often not fully recorded,<ref>Geni Guide to Chinese Names, Geni'', https://www.geni.com/projects/Geni%25E8%258F%25AF%25E4%25BA%25BA%25E5%2590%258D%25E5%25AD%2597%25E6%258C%2587%25E5%258D%2597/38706, accessed 1 February 2018.</ref> but are typically recorded only as the surname followed by the character 氏 (shì), a character which can roughly be translated as “clan,” “surname,” or “maiden name.” Therefore, a record with an individual named 陳氏 (chén shì) would refer to a woman from the Chen (陳) clan or could also be translated as “Ms. Chen,” with Chen being her maiden name. | ||
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==Plurals== | ==Plurals== | ||
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