Events
Make your own pronoun buttons for SFU Multilingual Week
Drop by SFU Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies’ booth for a fun activity celebrating SFU Multilingual Week!
Use a button press to make your own buttons sharing your preferred pronouns in various languages. Choose from pre-printed designs or use your language skills to create your own buttons.
No registration; everyone invited. Drop by to make buttons and socialize.
- Multilingual Pronoun Button Making - Social
- Tuesday, February 25
- 11:00am-2:00pm - Booth
- In person, AQ South Concourse.
Exploring Language and Gender
Fun ideas and research related to language, multilingualism, and gender identity will be shared at the activity.
Does the commonly used English gender-neutral pronoun “they” translate into world languages?
According to Helen Hok-Sze Leung, professor and chair in SFU Gender, Sexuality, & Women’s Studies, there are cultural and political challenges created by this approach. In her research, Leung compares pronouns in Cantonese, English, and French to advocate for a multilingual understanding of fostering gender-inclusive environments.
Did you know many world languages do not have third person, gendered pronouns?
“In northwestern North America, most Indigenous languages — such as the Interior Salish, Haida, Tlingit, Dene, and Wakashan languages — do not have gender in the third person," explains Marianne Ignace, director of SFU’s Indigenous Languages Program and Indigenous Language Centre. 'll or 'laa means he-she-it or even ‘they.’ In most languages, the gender pronouns are affixes glued to the verb, rather than independent pronouns, although the latter also exist to some degree.”
Saylesh Wesley, a former PhD student in SFU Gender, Sexuality, & Women’s Studies, researched the impact of colonization on Coast Salish languages and cultures. Welsey’s article seeks to name transgender and two-spirit identities in the Stó:lõ language.
We would love to hear about languages you speak. Learn more and join the conversation about language and gender by dropping by our booth on February 25.