S1E4: Gender in German
German is a gender language, which means that all nouns have a grammatical gender, these being feminine, masculine, and neuter in German. This makes it very tricky to be fully gender-inclusive or gender-neutral in spoken and written German, especially because the masculine gender is so dominant.
In this episode I talk to Maria Pober (University of Vienna) about the gender system in German grammar as well as some ways it may be possible to speak or write in a gender-neutral way.
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About this episode's guest
Maria Pober teaches at the Department for German Studies at the University of Vienna, as well as various other institutes. Her main research areas include language, gender and linguistics. She is also an advisory member of the Austrian Association for Legal Linguistics.
Email: maria.pober@univie.ac.at
Publications
Book:
Gendersymmetrie
Überlegungen zur geschlechtersymmetrischen Struktur eines Genderwörterbuches im Deutschen
Königshausen & Neumann 2007
Do you know the difference between a Frau mit Erfahrung (woman with experience) and a Mann mit Erfahrung (man with experience)? The question as to why it is not the same if she or he gains such experience is discussed among other topics in this book.
Links and information
- Website: gender-symmetry-representation.at
- Staff webpage (University of Vienna):
www.univie.ac.at/germanistik/maria-pober - ResearchGate (with further publications):
www.researchgate.net/profile/Maria_Pober
This episode was first released on 16.02.2021.
YOTE theme music by Vincent Tone (PremiumBeat.com)