译语翻译分享-语言可能含有隐秘的性别歧视

我喜欢自认为是一个幸福的女人——我也喜欢自认为是一个爱走路、懂得人情世故、好相处的人。不过，如果用意大利语描述我的以上特征，就等于把自己称为妓女。

I like to think of myself as a happy woman-I also like to think of myself as a person who loves to walk, understands the world, and is easy to get along with. However, if I describe the above characteristics in Italian, it is equivalent to calling myself a prostitute.

在世界各地，一些专家提出，语言可能含有隐秘的性别歧视，通常是父权制比现在更强大时期的文化后遗症。当我们考虑争取两性平等时，我们的母语是否在阻碍我们？怎样才能改变这种状况？

Around the world, some experts have suggested that language may contain hidden sexism, which is usually a cultural sequelae of a period when patriarchy was stronger than it is now. When we consider fighting for gender equality, is our mother tongue hindering us? How can this situation be changed?

长期以来，语言学家一直在争论语言相对论假说——一种语言的语法或词汇是否将特定世界观强加于其使用者。

For a long time, linguists have been arguing about the hypothesis of language relativity—whether a language's grammar or vocabulary imposes a specific worldview on its users.

以韩语为例。韩语中有一个贬义词用来形容在外国奢侈品上大手大脚却在必需品上精打细算的女人——“大酱女”。不管她买了多少香奈儿包，她都永远无法掩饰自己的“韩国本性”，这种消费方式是受嘲笑的。但没有“大酱男”这种贬损的说法。

Take Korean as an example. There is a derogatory term in Korean used to describe a woman who spends money on foreign luxury goods but carefully counts on necessities-"Dajiang Girl". No matter how many Chanel bags she bought, she would never be able to conceal her "Korean nature". This way of consumption is ridiculed. But there is no such a derogatory statement as "Daijiang Man".

在英语中，“spinster（老处女）”这个词没有真正的男性对等词。有“bachelor（单身汉）”一词，但它不具有老处女传统上的负面含义。韩语会让人觉得女性比男性更贪婪吗？英语会让人认为年长男性未婚可以接受，而年长女性未婚不可接受吗？

In English, the word "spinster" has no real male equivalent. There is the term "bachelor", but it does not have the traditional negative connotations of old maidens. Does Korean make people think that women are more greedy than men? Does English make people think that it is acceptable for older men to be unmarried, but unmarried for older women?

让语言更加平等不仅仅是要解决我们在描述身份时存在的性别刻板印象。20世纪90年代，英国牛津大学语言和传播学教授黛比·卡梅伦提出了一个说法——语言卫生。如今的一些语言卫生重点是非常公开和众所周知的，但一些需要清理的词语并不那么明显。

Making language more equal is not just about addressing the gender stereotypes that we have when describing identities. In the 1990s, Debbie Cameron, professor of language and communication at Oxford University in the United Kingdom, put forward a statement-language hygiene. Some of the focus of language hygiene today is very public and well-known, but some of the words that need to be cleaned up are not so obvious.

在世界各地，女性是由她们的婚姻状况界定的。现在我已经接近30岁了，正处于一个尴尬阶段，西欧人会在称呼我“小姐”和“太太”之间摇摆。男人则仍然是“先生”，与婚姻与年龄无关。未婚男女同样有性别标签——在印地语中，新娘是kanya，这个词也有处女的意思。相反，新郎是doolha，这个称呼与他以前的性经历无关。乌尔都语中没有形容离婚男人的词，但是离婚女人是talaq yafta，是个贬义词。

All over the world, women are defined by their marital status. Now that I am close to 30 years old, I am in an awkward stage, and Western Europeans will sway between calling me "Miss" and "Mrs.". The man is still a "sir", regardless of marriage or age. Unmarried men and women also have gender tags-in Hindi, the bride is kanya, which also means virgin. On the contrary, the bridegroom is doolha, which has nothing to do with his previous sexual experience. There is no word in Urdu to describe a divorced man, but a divorced woman is talaq yafta, which is a derogatory term.

在日语中，猥亵者这个词是由两个字组成的，一个意思是愚蠢，另一个意思是男人。一些评论家认为，这暗示着猥亵者只是笨蛋，而不是罪犯。

In Japanese, the word molester is made up of two characters, one meaning stupid and the other meaning man. Some critics believe that this implies that the moles are just idiots, not criminals.

疫情告诉我们，身体健康与否可能会给我们的生活方式造成一定代价。

The epidemic tells us that whether we are healthy or not may cause a certain price to our lifestyle.

或许良好的语言卫生需要付出同样多的努力——就像记得戴口罩逛商店一样，这意味着我们在说话时要同样留心——承认女性不仅在我们的世界里，而且在我们的多种语言中都应该得到与男性平等的待遇。（卢荻译自4月9日英国广播公司网站，原题为《性别歧视语言伤害女性》）

Perhaps good language hygiene requires the same amount of effort-just like remembering to wear a mask to go to the store, which means we have to be equally mindful when speaking-to acknowledge that women are not only in our world, but also in our multiple languages Zhongdu deserves equal treatment with men. (Translated by Lu Di from the BBC website on April 9th, the original title is "Sexist Language Harming Women")

From website: http://www.cankaoxiaoxi.com/