By Andreja Milošević MCIL

This text was prepared by Prof. Jelena Stojic as an extension of the interview given by Prof. Stojic to the author for Part 2 in the "Gender Sensitivity in the Serbian Language" series.

Grammatical gender vs gender as a social construct

In the Serbian language all nouns, whether they are animate or inanimate, have a so-called grammatical gender which is different from gender as a social construct. Grammatical gender refers solely to how nouns change through cases and how they agree with pronouns, adjectives and verbs. For example, the grammatical gender of the noun kuća (house) is feminine, while the grammatical gender of the noun automobil (car) is masculine. Therefore, we say lepa kuća, but lep automobil, not lepa automobil (beautiful house/car).

Grammatical gender overlaps

While grammatical gender and the actual gender of a certain person or animal often overlap (e.g. the word sestra (sister) changes like the word kuća (house) and refers to a female person), there are quite a few instances where this is not the case. For example, the words tata (dad), muškarčina (a macho man) and Nikola (a male Serbian name) are all of feminine grammatical gender, but masculine natural gender. The words osoba (person), mušterija (customer), filmska zvezda (film star), žrtva (victim) are of feminine grammatical gender, but are neutral and quite progressive in that they can actually refer to a person of any gender. The same goes for many nouns of masculine grammatical gender such as kupac (buyer), svedok (witness) and poslodavac (employer).

Gender-sensitive language implies, inter alia, deriving feminitives from nouns of masculine grammatical gender such as poslodavka (female employer) from poslodavac (employer) or svedokinja (female witness) from svedok (witness). Although the Serbian language often allows for such derivations to take place, using the semantically neutral, but grammatically masculine gender form by no means implies exclusion of women. 

How to refer to female professionals

A particularly heated public debate centers on whether it should be obligatory to use feminitives when referring to female professionals, e.g. inženjerka (female engineer) derived from inženjer (engineer), spisateljica (female writer) derived from pisac (writer) and advokatica (female lawyer) derived from advokat (lawyer). Although nouns of masculine grammatical gender such as inženjer, pisac and advokat originally referred to male professionals only, our language has evolved to reflect the new reality in which both men and women can be engineers, writers and lawyers – the meaning of these words extended to cover female professionals, too. Thus, it is not at all uncommon for a Serbian female engineer to introduce herself as inženjer (engineer) rather than inženjerka (female engineer). The feminitive inženjerka is in use, too, but by no means indispensable for the intended meaning to be conveyed.

Some of the main concerns regarding the use of feminitives

1. In the Serbian language certain feminitives such as ministarka (female minister), predsednica (female president) and studentkinja (female student) are widely used. Others, however, are considered neologisms and are used rarely, e.g. pešakinja (female pedestrian), pilotkinja (female pilot) and in particular feminitives violating standard word formation processes such as stomatološkinja (female dentist) and psihološkinja (female pshychologist) which are derived not from nouns as is usually the case but from adjectives. While these and similar neologisms might enter wider usage over time, they are still found to sound cumbersome and their imposition is, therefore, likely to encounter resistance. 

2. In certain situations, it is not the gender of the person/people in question that is important, but rather their competence/professionalism/assistance/presence, etc. as is illustrated with the following examples:

A) Treba da razgovaraš sa arhitektom = You should speak to an architect (to someone who can give you professional architectural advice) Substituting the neutral word arhitekta (architect) with arhitekta ili arhitektkinja ('architect or female architect') might distract the interlocutor, shifting the focus from competence and professionalism to gender.

B) Zamolila sam komšije da mi pomognu da ugasim požar = I asked my neighbours to help me extinguish fire. According to gender-sensitive language rules, instead of the neutral form komšije (neighbours), the form komšije i komšinice (neighbours and female neighbours) should be used. However, the focus is not on whether only men or only women or both men and women were asked for help; rather, the focus is on the people living in the same building or neighbourhood.

C) In formal contexts and in official documents such as university diplomas and certificates the neutral form is preferred since one’s professional competence does not depend on one’s gender (e.g. …dodeljuje joj se zvanje inženjer organizacionih nauka = '…she is awarded the title of Engineer of Organizational Sciences').

On the other hand, when professions and roles do depend on one’s gender, no neutral form is used, but rather feminitives, e.g. glumica (actress) instead of glumac (actor), teniserka (female tennis player) instead of teniser, balerina (ballerina) instead of baletan (male ballet dancer), etc.

In less formal contexts, for instance, when students greet their female professor (a person they are acquainted with) or patients address their female doctor, feminitives are widely used. Thus, we would expect patients to say: Dobro jutro, doktorka (literally: Good morning, female doctor).
 

3. The Gender Sensitive Language Implementation Guide (2019) by Hristina Cvetinčanin Knežević and Jelena Lalatović offers a comprehensive list of feminitives along with their masculinitive counterparts. However, the guide has by no means covered all agent nouns and it remains unclear how to derive a feminitive form from certain masculinitives, e.g. centar (in English a 'center',  a player whose position is at the center of the playing area), bek (in English a 'back', a defensive player), čovek ('human') or kupac ('buyer').

4. Certain feminitives do not just sound cumbersome, but already have another meaning and might, therefore, prove a source of confusion or even ridicule. One of those feminitives is the word trenerka whose primary meaning is a 'tracksuit', but as a neologism means 'a female coach'. The word kosačica is another example - its primary meaning is a 'lawn mower', but as a feminitive it means 'a female lawn care worker'.

5. In the Serbian language feminitives are sometimes used to downgrade women rather than increase their visibility . Thus, for example, one might address a female architect as arhitektica, which, provided the derogatory tone is used, questions that female architect’s competence. 

6. A lot of neutral loanwords have entered the Serbian language (e.g. stylist, influencer, agent, etc). If they are neutral in the original language, why can’t they remain neutral in Serbian? For example, in English a 'stylist' is a person who helps people decide on their style. If this word refers to a person in the original language, can’t it be used in the same way in Serbian?

7. When it comes to plural nouns, just as mušterije (customers) which is grammatically feminine, but semantically neutral encompasses both male and female customers, the word 'svedoci' (witnesses), which is grammatically masculine, but semantically neutral encompasses both female and male witnesses. Despite the existence of the neutral plural form, gender-sensitive language rules mandate the parallel use of that neutral form svedoci and the feminitive svedokinje, e.g. Danas smo svedoci i svedokinje velikih promena u našem društvu. = literally: 'Today, we are witnesses and female witnesses to significant changes in our society'. Not only is this parallel use found to be cumbersome, but also pleonastic.

Where verbs agree with nouns

To add a new layer of complexity, in the Serbian language verbs agree with nouns and would, therefore, have to adapt, too. One of the most quoted examples is the one taken from a geography textbook (class 7) and adapted to adhere to gender-sensitive language laws: Preci/pretkinje Indijanaca/Indijanki doselili/doselile su se iz Azije. Indijanci/Indijanke su se proširili/proširile i naselili/naselile američki kontinent sve do Ognjene zemlje na jugu. = 'The ancestors/female ancestors of Native Americans/female Native Americans migrated from Asia. Native Americans/female Native Americans spread across and settled the American continent all the way to Tierra del Fuego in the south.' (in Serbian, unlike in English, two parallel verb forms are used) Such formulations are found to be difficult to follow and understand.

Conclusion

The focus of the gender-sensitive language debate is mainly on masculinitives and feminitives and does not concern many other genders which the constitution does not recognize now but might come to recognize in the future. The question inevitably arises as to whether yet new forms would have to be introduced to accommodate that change in the future. Wouldn’t it be better to stick to the neutral form which our language has already developed and which could refer to people of any gender? 

In conclusion, it is worth quoting the final sentence of the Article 6 of the Gender Equality Law (2021) which reads: "Terms used in this law and in regulations adopted pursuant to it, which have a gendered meaning and are expressed in the grammatical masculine form, shall be understood to refer to natural persons of both female and male sex." If the law itself proclaims the grammatical masculine form as neutral, why should feminitives and parallel forms not yet accepted by a wider public be imposed by the same law?

Andreja Milošević MCIL is a Serbian translator and interpreter, and is a member of CIOL's ED&I Committee.

Andreja has written two previous articles in this series for CIOL Voices:

Challenges in implementing gender sensitivity in the Serbian language

Implementing gender-sensitive language in Serbia

Views expressed on CIOL Voices are those of the writer and may not represent those of the wider membership or CIOL.