Because Spanish and Portuguese are lenguas latinas, or if you prefer, idiomas latinos. Either version works in both Spanish and Portuguese.
Hey, perhaps she though the abuela might be a man in drag, and didn’t know if the drag is good enough to pass then the female versions are preferred…
I’m the opposite: I’ve heard it several times (on NPR’s “Code Switch” podcast), read it never.
I assumed it was spelled “Latinex”.
And was sure that the impetus for its use was the same as the singular “they” in that sense.
But we are dealing with identifying those who speak a language, and the language itself has genders for neutral objects.
Something seems maybe … arrogant? presumptuous? … about imposing that English-focused use of non-gendered language to identify those who speak a language which is gendered throughout. To me.
Nah, the “mustn’t use gendered language” movement is pretty widespread through the developed world. The Spanish jokes on people turning any word with gendered or pseudo-gendered endings into one ending in -oa have been around for more than [del]20[/del]30 years. Fuck I’m old…
Heck, the word portavoz (invariant m/f, “spokesperson”) comes from the word voz (f; “voice”). A couple months back there was a minor ruckus over the imbecile spokesperson for populist Spanish party Podemos calling herself portavoza… cos yeah, nothing says feminism like peeing all over your own language.
If so then -x still seems off - -oa seems better.
First saw it here on this board, last year. It’s popped up a couple of times since then.
To Spanish ears and since neither ending makes sense, that’s like saying being unwillingly peed on seems better than having your pussy grabbed unwillingly.
Is there a way to refer in a non-gendered manner that does not sound like one of those options to Spanish ears?
Either say both words (which is overwrought but correct) or choose a non-gendered word. Non-gendered in meaning: gente (people) is (f) grammar-wise but genderless meaning-wise. Pamplonés (m) and pamplonesa (f) are gendered in both ways; pamplonica (m/f) is either both grammatically and meaning-wise (all three mean “from Pamplona”).
Oh, that’s the flip side (and an annoying one) of Spanish linguistic PC: the insistence on unnecessary splitting into bigendered forms of words/usages that are neuter or inclusive. I’ve at times asked people if we’re going to start referring to female representatives as “representantas” and female students as “estudiantas”.
(Sure, the norm is to use “generic masculine neuter” but that does not mean that every generic usage is *necessarily *masculine. Most notably, e.g. “la(s) persona(s)”, the person(s), is in generic feminine.)
Plus, I get the feeling that if Spanish HAD kept a fully distinct neuter grammatical gender in quotidian use, people would be getting offended by having it used to refer to them anyway (“I am NOT an inanimate object!”), and still insist on a personalized version.
As for demonyms, if you’re fortunate you come from somewhere that can apply the -ense or -ica suffix. Otherwise your speeches all begin “Buenos días, compañeros y compañeras abogados y abogadas moroveños y moroveñas…”
I have seen Latinx but always believed it referred exclusively to homosexual Latino men and women.
And now multiply by two for bilingual areas… wheeeee!
How would you pronounce “Latinx” in Spanish?
I’ve heard of it because my step-daughter is president of her school’s LatinX Club. I have no opinion about it either way.
This is my first exposure to it. I’ve seen Latin used as both a noun and as an adjective modifying a neutral noun to cover the uses of latinx.