The gang is all assembled. Farah and Edward have been here for a day already. Mike and I drove up from Helsinki this afternoon. Charles Vess and his wife, Karen, arrived while we were having dinner. The hotel is very comfortable, and the wi-fi is free. Sadly there will be no direct blogging from the con as it is in a convention center and the wi-fi there is €200/day. That’s convention centers for you.
Tomorrow morning is the academic session, and tomorrow afternoon the Finnish SF Writers meeting. After that, sauna.
On there way here Mike and I were chatting to Marianna, our con chair and Supreme Queen of Everything, about various things, including translations. Apparently Finnish does not have separate gendered pronouns. There is just one word that means both “he” and “she”, though here is a separate word for “it”. I can see that I need to sit and chat to Johanna Sinisalo about this.
Thai also has non-gendered pronouns, although personal pronouns are gendered. This is quite handy in a culture where transgender identification is common.
There is much to be said for not having to guess a stranger’s gender identification while making it easy for them to telegraph it to you.
Actually I suspect that Thailand is a culture where transgender identification is more socially acceptable and therefore more openly expressed, rather than more common per se. The pronoun thing may help with that.
Interesting from a language developement perspective. As easy as it is to name He and She from the most simple of cultures on a purely physical basis (ok, most common anyway), that there is no gender differentiation is surprising.
200 Euros a day?? That’s more than I make in a couple of weeks!!!
I’m on a small campaign to use ‘they’ and its various forms as non-gendered singular pronoun till someone comes up with a better alternative. In fact, you’ve reminded me to post about it, since so many people write to correct me, assuming I’m making an error in grammar.
“Apparently Finnish does not have separate gendered pronouns. There is just one word that means both “he†and “she—
The same is true, of course, in Mandarin, despite heretical recent attempts to introduce an artificial distinction. I’ve always found this fascinating, in a culture that has historically distinguished so very much between the male and the female; the most fun, though, was being abroad in Taiwan with translators who seemed to speak very good English but would keep getting confused between he and she, because they just weren’t used to a difference…
Malay/Indonesian also makes no distinction in personal pronouns between “he”, “she” and “it”. Or “his”, “hers” and “its”. They also make less use of “you” and “I” by using names instead. So instead of saying “I saw you” they will often say something like “Glenda saw Cheryl” when it’s Glenda doing the talking to Cheryl.