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Invariable words in Spanish are often derived from the Latin participles ending in -ans and -ens (-antem and -entem in the accusative case): estudiante. Some words that are normatively epicene can have an informal feminine ending with '-a'. Example: la jefe; jefa. The same happens with la cliente (client); "la clienta".
Another unique aspect of Spanish is that personal pronouns have distinct feminine forms for the first and second person plural. For example, the Spanish pronouns nosotras and vosotras specifically refer to groups of females, distinguishing them from the masculine forms used for mixed-gender or male groups. [3]
Many grammars of Spanish suggest that nouns ending in -a are feminine, [14] [15] but there is no requirement that Spanish nouns ending in -a be feminine. [10] Thus, grammars that pose such a requirement also typically include a long list of exceptions, such as el alerta 'alert', el bocata 'sandwich', el caza 'fighter plane', and many others.
Orthographic solutions strive to include both the masculine and feminine endings in the word. Examples include hyphens (étudiant-e-s), middle dots (étudiant·e·s), [38] parentheses (étudiant(e)s), or capital letters (étudiantEs). The parentheses method is now often considered sexist, because parentheses are used to show something less ...
Using phonological similarities between the word as it is heard and the receiving language's associations. For instance, in Boston, an Italian immigrant may hear "freezer" pronounced with a schwa at the end (freezə) and, due to the similarity between the /ə/ and an /a/ (which is feminine in Italian), assign the loanword a feminine gender.
Image credits: Daeromarthys The way that specific cultures view femininity and masculinity affects life in a myriad of ways. For example, it can also influence the types of extracurricular ...
For example, a study found that women who were referred to as professoressa were seen as less persuasive than either a man or women who used the title professore (Italian for the feminine and masculine forms of "professor," respectively.") [8] Another reason feminized language may carry poor conceptions is because many efforts to feminize ...
las mujeres = "[the] women" The usually-masculine form el is used instead of la before feminine nouns that begin with a stressed a (or rarely, au) sound (as well as, in principle, ai although such words are almost never found in practice): el águila (pequeña) = "the (small) eagle" el agua (fresca) = "the (fresh) water" el hacha (afilada ...