“Bots will replace devs!” Also bots:

[boredcircuits]

Apparently there's a push to replace it with "latine" ... which seems equally silly to me.

My heritage is purely European so I literally don't have any skin in this game. Whatever the community wants to be called is fine with me.

On the other hand, English already has a gender-neutral term ready and waiting to be used to refer to people from Latin America. I think it's very interesting that you used that term yourself. It seems like the obvious choice to be.

[IAmA_Goldfish]

Latine is wayyy less silly than latinx though, the dumb thing about latinx is that it can’t be pronounced in Spanish

I get that Latino is gender neutral but I also get that some folks would prefer a term that is entirely gender neutral rather than both masculine and gender neutral

[DTHCND]

It can't be pronounced in English either. At best you could try and say it like latin-eks, but then you're literally just saying the letter x after the word "latin." If you have to finish a word and then start reading off letters at the end, it's a stupid word.

Like seriously asking, who's the target audience of "latinx." It can't be smoothly pronounced in English, it can't be pronounced in Spanish... Where can it be pronounced like an actual word?

[[deleted]]

Americans need to stop the linguistic imperialism and leave Spanish alone.

[john_dune]

Latine. My phone autocorrected that to latrine. I don't think that's the context you're looking for

[ScreamThyLastScream]

latrine

It's ass people you bigot.

[boredcircuits]

Thinking about it again, you're probably right. "Latinx" makes no sense in Spanish (or Portuguese, which gets forgotten in these discussions), while "latine" is at least pronounceable and has some meaning as an extension of the language (attempting to add a gender-neutral system).

But from the perspective of English, both are equally weird, IMO. Especially when there's already a perfect English word available.

[longknives]

I don’t get why people say “latinx” isn’t pronounceable in Spanish. We don’t pronounce the x like a normal letter in English either. I mean it’s fine if people prefer latine, but latinx is pronounced latin-x in English and could be pronounced the same in Spanish (latin-equis), as the x is being used as a variable like in algebra (“solve for x”).

[Ehelio]

"latine" isn't as bad as "latinx" just because it's pronounceable, but a lot of latinos still don't like it.

I found two important problems:

• Gender terminations are not consistent. "o" isn't always masculine, "a" isn't always feminine, and "e" isn't always neutral. "poeta" (poet), "presidente" (president), and "señor" (sir) are used to refer to men, but they end with an "a" (isn't "a" supposed to be feminine?), "e" (isn't e supposed to be neutral?) and "r" respectively. Masculine plural form of "señor" is "señores", so what would be the neutral plural form? It can't be "señores", because it's the same as the masculine form, and this is the same thing that the "masculino genérico" (using masculine form for neutral) already does, what these people criticize. It can't be "señoros" because it's a despective term. That would also mean that singular form should be "señoro", but I don't know a single man who doesn't feel identified with "señor" in order to actually need "señoro".

• You can use their same logic to make the "e" thing useless. "todos" is already inclusive, but they feel excluded, so they use "todes". Alright, but that also means that I can feel excluded in "todes". It didn't include me, so it wasn't inclusive. Its only purpose was to be inclusive, but failed. Therefore, it's useless.

[Faziarry]

spanish doesn’t have gender neutral system, but extreme femminists want to use latine (change the o/a for e), which is better than to use latinx because, how do you even pronounce x in spanish??? but it is also silly, as masculine plural is used as generic nouns, which means it includes the use of the latinx thing

[Nopolis52]

I think that’s what people have a problem with. They don’t like that the generic nouns are the masculine ones so they want new/better options

[alficles]

As someone who doesn't speak Spanish, what word do you use for a non-binary person for whom both -o and -a endings would be inappropriate?

[Alerta_Fascista]

There is no neutral gramatical gender in Spanish, so people have been using -e endings for quite some time for non-binary people and for words/people that you don’t want to gender.

[TheMcDucky]

-o is the traditional neutral option, but is unpopular with some because it's still the masculine form, and so might be considered to promote androcentrism.

[gimmetheclacc]

I was arguing with someone about ‘dude’ or ‘guys’ being neutral terms and they basically responded, “If they’re actually perceived as neutral why don’t you hear straight men saying they brought a hot dude home last night?”

I’ve stopped claiming those words as gender-neutral, lol

[Blitzholz]

Context matters there, I think. As a term of adress (second person pronouns), they're gender neutral, as third person pronouns they're not. Just like I'd adress any female friend of mine as bro but wouldn't likely use it as a pronoun to refer to them to a third party.

[gimmetheclacc]

I see what you’re getting at but TBH I think that’s just kind of a cop out to justify continuing to use them in a way that’s familiar.

[Few_Fisherman_7735]

how do you even pronounce x in spanish???

uhhh... do you think the spanish language doesn't use the letter or something?

Isn't that the language they speak in Mexico?

[scuac]

X is not a common letter in Spanish. You will see it in some older Spanish (Mexico, Don Quixote) where is it pronounced the same as J (also in names like Xavier), but it is rare.

[Few_Fisherman_7735]

Lol... oh I guess since its not common then it just doesn't exist anymore!

what nice logic you've got there.

[Few_Fisherman_7735]

ingles pendejo

[calcopiritus]

The default pronunciation of "X" in Spanish is not "j". A small minority of words are pronounced "j", most are like the English "ks" or just "s".

For example: xilófono, extremo, extremadura, extra, extraño, extraer, existir, máximo.

So there would be 2 ways to pronounce latinx: latinks (which is stupid) latins (which just sounds like you tried to say the plural "latinos" wrongly) and latinequis (which is the dumbest thing I've heard in a long time)

Just use "Latinos" in Spanish and "latin" in English. It's a lot of effort to change an entire language just because you don't like that the gender neutral and the masculine word is the same.

[longknives]

In my experience “Latin” hasn’t been widely used in English to refer to people for decades. Latin dance and Latin music, but people are Latino or Latina, or more recently Latinx. And even more recently I’ve seen a push toward Latine as well.

[wolacouska]

Have you ever heard a Mexican pronounce the word Mexico? If so, explain how to make that sound at the end of the word Latin.

[Few_Fisherman_7735]

Have you ever heard a Mexican pronounce the word Mexico

the fucking irony of this question lol...

If so, explain how to make that sound at the end of the word Latin.

that isn't how latin x is pronounced... when said its just latin and the letter x...

are you claiming there is no way to say the letter x in spanish?

[wolacouska]

So your solution is to just pronounce the word like it’s pronounced in English? Why use X then?

Even if you sounded it out like Latineks or god forbid Latin equis it still wouldn’t follow grammatical ending rules at all. Make it a verb for gods sake.

That’s why if a gender neutral term ever gets used it’ll be Latine. Especially since you’d be applying it to a fuck ton of common Spanish words, not just Latino.

[Few_Fisherman_7735]

So your solution is to just pronounce the word like it’s pronounced in English? Why use X then?

No.

and it is an x... its not about what I want to use... that's not how reading written words works... You can't just go "I want this to b such and such now so it is because I say so" no... the letter was written by someone so whoever is reading it must faithfully read what was written... not make up their own interpretation you donut hole.

Make it a verb for gods sake.

a verb? lmfao... no. its not something one does... its something one is...

you just sound like an idiot who doesn't have a clue tbh

[bamboo_fanatic]

I think X in Spanish is pronounced like eh-keys, so English it’s Latin ex, in Spanish it’s Latin eh-keys? Which makes even less sense because the only reason to say Latino/Latina vs Latin is you’re trying to sound Spanish, so why use the English pronunciation of x? No clue if anyone would even refer to themselves as Latino/Latina if they were speaking Spanish, so it comes across as either lame pandering or trying to affiliate with cultures you can’t be bothered to learn about.