What’s the Spanish for “terf”?
Nevertheless NPR still of course has plenty of time to drivel on and on about the alphabet soup.
During Pride month, it can be easy to find books on LGBTQIA+ topics displayed prominently in libraries. But searching in Spanish for those books is difficult. That’s because Spanish search terms for relevant topics aren’t in the catalog.
Because Spanish-speakers haven’t yet caught up to the English-speakers in the business of creating new vocabulary and rules and punishments around the alphabet soup?
Cifor is working with a professor at Northeastern University in Boston to create a Spanish Homosaurus. It’s like a glossary for Spanish terms that libraries can integrate into their subject catalog. The UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center and the Arizona Queer Archives will also help with the project.
“Our hope is to allow people to find the materials they want, and need in language that feels respectful and accurately reflects the way in which they understand themselves and their identities,” Cifor said.
There’s already a Homosaurus in English that includes more than 2,500 terms. The National Endowment for the Humanities last year granted nearly $350,000 to translate it into Spanish. A group of three students at Northeastern University is doing that work right now.
Yay, more than 2,500 terms! That’s definitely a good sign and not at all a symptom of endless mission creep.
The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., has been using the English Homosaurus since 2016. Megan Metcalf is a collection specialist there. They said the Homosaurus is helping correct outdated subject headings.
“Especially for like trans and gender nonconforming folks. The terminology was often medical or psychological, often derogatory,” Metcalf said. “So it’s been really awesome to see more and more records popping up with inclusive cataloging since we’ve been using the Homosaurus.”
They said the Library of Congress will likely adopt the Spanish Homosaurus, too.
Note the “they”! Two “theys” for one Megan! Be proud and happy and excited and thrilled.
The lexicon will probably be a mixture of clumsily Hispanified English terms (may I suggest “El Terfo?”) and made-up, misused, or idiolectic Spanish terms (maybe they can rehabilitate “Marimacha.”). They’ll be as widely used among Hispanics as, say, “Latinx.”
Sadly, endless mission creep is not the worst of it. Here is the description under ‘Lesbians’:
Sorry fellas, but lesbians are always and only women, of the xx chromosome variety. I should know; I came out over fifty years ago. And not all lesbians ‘belong to lesbian communities’. When I came out I had no idea where to look for other lesbians. There wasn’t a visible lesbian culture. And for good reason: women who came to be known as lesbians might be ostracised by family, colleagues and former friends; sacked from their jobs with no redress; beaten up in the street. Over the past decades we have built a public lesbian culture bit by bit. Until the mass emergence of the het males who get off on pretending to be women and demand that lesbians ‘validate’ them. At which point words fail me… I am too angry and sad.
@ Papito #1
I don’t know if it could be “el TERFo,” because that is distinctly masculine. The TRAs definitely know who is a woman when figuring out whom to demonize. It would have to be “la TERFa,” or simply “bruja” [witch], which is what they really mean anyway. It’s hard to use any kind of gender-neutral language or terms in Spanish. “Lx TERFx,” perhaps.
@ NightCrow #2,
Am I mistaken, or does the author mean “predominantly” rather than “predominately”?
And that is a stupid definition. Someone who “self-dentifies as [undefined term X],” AND ” belongs to [undefined term X] communities.” Does it just escape everyone’s notice that this ” definition” actually doesn’t define a single thing?
“Not all lesbians are women,” is just factually untrue. Not all women are lesbians, but all lesbians — ALL lesbians — are women.
Who the hell knows what “lesbian communities” are? What does that even mean? And “gender non-conforming people who belong to lesbian communities have often identified as lesbian, ” is nonsense upon nonsense. It’s nebulousness, it’s gossamer, it’s fog, it’s letters put together to form words that have no cognitive content when put in that order.
“Hey, we need an international linked data vocabulary of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer terms! But what shall we call it?”
“Hmm, can anyone think of a ludicrous name that religious conservatives can easily turn into a boogeyman?”
“What about ‘Homosaurus?’ As in ‘BEWARE THE HOMOSAURUS, IT’S COMING FOR THE CHILDREN!!!’”
“Perfect — the paranoia just writes itself. We can mock that. Use it.”
Nothing says “We are queering language to remove all traces of meaning from regular vocabulary, in order to change reality and bring about a Utopia where we are in charge and everyone else is an identical drone” like calling their post-modern dictionary ‘man-lizard’.
Etymology, normal language usage, common meaning and mutual understanding are all contrary to the purpose of these narcissistic lunatics. Anathema, even, to mix my languages. Greek? Latin? Pfffft. Who cares? Once Big Brother is in charge, none of it will matter. Burn all the books! We’ll all be happy when we know nothing and can’t meaningfully communicate amongst ourselves! Just love Big Brother and trust in Him!
@maddog, well, if we want to be serious for a moment (shudder), the word “TERF” is already in use in Spanish, and it’s not going to be changed. Nobody is really going to make it el terfo, or la terfa, or lx terfx. It’s just TERF, and everybody uses it that way, with whatever article seems to fit the case. This isn’t France, where the academy will swoop in and insist that nobody use a cognate or loan-word where they can invent a more French word (ordinateur, courriel, arrosage, etc.).
In the the perennial struggles between descriptivists and prescriptivists, the descriptivists always win. ( Except maybe in France).
But “El Terfo” is funny. It sounds like an elf who got banned from Disenchantment.
@ maddog1129 #3
‘Predominantly’ and ‘predominately’ are synonyms, more or less. Both are, of course, formed from the verb predominate. Predominantly is far commoner in modern use.