Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 8-27-2020 10:00 AM Latino, Latina, Latin@, Latine, and Latinx: Gender Inclusive Oral Expression in Spanish Katie Slemp, The University of Western Ontario Supervisor: Heap, David J., The University of Western Ontario A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the Master of Arts degree in Hispanic Studies © Katie Slemp 2020 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Spanish Linguistics Commons Recommended Citation Slemp, Katie, "Latino, Latina, Latin@, Latine, and Latinx: Gender Inclusive Oral Expression in Spanish" (2020). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 7297. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/7297 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abstract Gender identity is a rapidly changing concept and so is the language that we use to talk about ourselves or others that may identify outside of the traditional binary system. Spanish typically functions as a masculine generic-dominated language, but there are attempts to make the language more inclusive. One of those attempts appeared in the early 2000s: -x. This marker is unpronounceable as a syllable nucleus. Via an online survey and virtual interviews, this project discovers how Spanish speakers from various countries incorporate gender inclusive language (IL) in writing and speech. Which speakers incorporate IL? Additionally, why do they use IL? The statistically significant variables are gender identity and birth country. Growing faster in popularity than the -x is the morpheme -e, already existent in the Spanish phonological and lexical systems. The interviews reveal that speakers who desire to use IL do not do so infallibly and their motivations are varied. Keywords Inclusive language, Spanish inclusive language, sociolinguistics, language change and variation, gender and language. ii Summary for Lay Audience This thesis investigates how Spanish speakers are attempting to use gender inclusive language. Traditionally, the Spanish language has two genders, male and female. Spanish uses the ending –o for men, and –a for women. The traditional two-gender system is being challenged in light of expanding awareness of complex gender identities. Speakers of languages with grammatical gender systems are faced with difficulty in how to express gender identities outside of the current options of man and woman. Prescriptive language institutions are opposed to altering the grammatical system of Spanish, and therefore speakers must create innovations that are not standardized. Different suffixes are used by speakers to express inclusive language in Spanish, and there is no real consensus on which inclusive marker to use. This study finds that the suffix –e has become the most popular option to use in both speech and writing. Additionally, –x is the second most popular option to use in writing while doubled forms (los chicos y las chicas) are the second most popular option for inclusive language in speech. Gender and birth country have significant correlations with many of the tested variables, and they are the only demographic variables that are found to be significant in this study. The motivations for using inclusive language are varied, and the future solution is unclear, but Spanish speakers are highly aware of the difficulty surround the relationship between expanding gender identities and the binary grammatical gender system. This thesis provides a snapshot in time of the current environment surrounding gender inclusive language in Spanish. iii Acknowledgments Throughout the writing of this thesis, I have received a great deal of support and assistance. I would first like to thank my supervisor, Dr. David Heap, whose expertise and guidance helped me along every step of the process, from the proposal to final submission of the finished work. I would also like to thank my second reader, Dr. Jeff Tennant, who provided assistance and advice, particularly regarding the data analysis. I would like to thank the additional members of my thesis committee, Dr. Joyce Bruhn de Garavito and Dr. Tania Granadillo, who provided valuable feedback before the final submission of this thesis. Finally, I would like to thank my mother, who raised me to be ambitious and to persevere and my sister who showed me that hard work and dedication is the way to accomplish your goals. I would also like to thank my partner, Ari, our pets, and my friends who all provided emotional support during the completion of this thesis. You have all helped me more than I can express. This research was aided in part by funding provided through the Faculty Research Development Fund (Arts and Humanities, Western) 2019, and a Social Science and Humanities Research Council Explore Grant (University of Western Ontario), 2020, as well as the Western Graduate Research Scholarship. iv Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................. ii Summary for Lay Audience .............................................................................................. iii Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................ iv Table of Contents .............................................................................................................. v List of Tables .................................................................................................................. viii List of Figures .................................................................................................................. xi List of Appendices ........................................................................................................... xii Chapter 1 .......................................................................................................................... 1 1 Introduction............................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2 .......................................................................................................................... 6 2 Literature Review ....................................................................................................... 6 2.1 Gender Acquisition in Spanish .................................................................................... 6 2.2 Gender Processing ....................................................................................................... 7 2.3 The Morphosyntax of Grammatical Gender in Romance ........................................... 9 2.4 The Phonology of Grammatical Gender in Spanish .................................................. 10 2.5 Grammatical Gender and Perception ........................................................................ 13 2.6 Motivations for Inclusive Language ........................................................................... 16 2.7 Language Change and Variation ............................................................................... 18 2.8 Inclusive Language .................................................................................................... 19 2.8.1 Types of Inclusive Language ........................................................................................................ 19 v 2.8.2 Inclusive Language Attempts in Spanish ..................................................................................... 21 2.9 Summary .................................................................................................................... 30 Chapter 3 ........................................................................................................................ 31 3 Methodology ............................................................................................................ 31 3.1 Survey ........................................................................................................................ 31 3.2 Ethics Protocol ........................................................................................................... 33 3.3 Recruitment ............................................................................................................... 33 3.4 Interviews ................................................................................................................... 34 3.5 Data Analysis ............................................................................................................. 35 Chapter 4 ........................................................................................................................ 37 4 Results ..................................................................................................................... 37 4.1 Demographic Breakdown of Participants .................................................................. 37 4.1.1 Birth Country ................................................................................................................................ 37 4.1.2 Gender Identity ............................................................................................................................. 40 4.1.3 Age ..............................................................................................................................................