Yo, did you know there are languages out there that are totally chill about gender? Like, they just don’t care if you're a dude, a gal, or anything in between.
1. Languages That Couldn’t Care Less About Gender:
Turkish:
So, in Turkish, they just say "o" for everyone. Like, "o went to the store," and nobody asks, "Wait, was it a guy or a girl?" Turkish people are just vibing without gendered pronouns.
Finnish:
Finnish has this magical word, "hän," which means "he," "she," or "whatever-you-want." No drama, just pure neutrality. Honestly, it’s a gender studies student’s dream.
Mandarin Chinese:
Here’s the plot twist: when you speak Mandarin, "tā" works for everyone—he, she, it—whatever. In writing, they kinda cheat by having different characters for "he" (他), "she" (她), and "it" (它), but when you talk? Nobody knows or cares. It’s like the ultimate guessing game.
Japanese:
Technically, Japanese has gendered pronouns, but here’s the thing—people barely use them. Instead, they just casually drop your name or title, like, "Oh, manager-san did this" or "Sakura-chan said that." It’s like sidestepping gender altogether.
2. Languages That Keep It Low-Key Neutral:
Korean:
Koreans are all about that minimalist life. No one’s stressing over "he" or "she" because they just use names, titles, or "that person." It’s like they Marie Kondo’d gender out of their grammar.
Swahili:
In Swahili, they don’t waste time on gender. Instead of worrying about "he" or "she," they’ve got classes for other things like objects, animals, or people. Gender is so last season.
3. Even Made-Up Languages Got This:
Esperanto:
So, Esperanto was supposed to be this super easy universal language, but people realized, "Hey, why do we even need separate pronouns for 'he' and 'she'?" So they added "ri" or "ŝli," which are like the non-binary MVPs of the language.
Lojban:
This one’s for the nerds. Lojban is a logical language (yeah, it’s a thing), and it’s completely gender-neutral. Like, zero room for assumptions. It’s basically the Spock of languages.
Lingua Franca Nova:
Another made-up language that’s like, "You know what? Let’s just use ‘el’ for everyone and call it a day." Easy, breezy, gender-neutral.
Why Are These Languages So Chill?
Some of them just naturally didn’t care about gender from the get-go, while others were created to keep things simple and inclusive. Either way, it’s kinda refreshing, right? Imagine never having to argue over pronouns or trip over grammar rules.
"So, yeah, if you ever feel like gendered languages (looking at you, French and Spanish) are giving you unnecessary drama, maybe pick up Finnish or Turkish. They’re out here living their best life, pronoun-free."
What do you think? Ready to start learning "hän" or "o"? 😎
You're right, some languages from the Ural-Altaic group don't have gender distinctions. Exactly. Besides Turkish, like you said, Azerbaijani, Kazakh and stuff like that also don't have it. They're from the same language family anyway. We even have similar grammar and sentence structures with Finnish. These similarities are one of the things that support the idea that these languages come from the Ural-Altaic family. But still, based on my own experience, I don't think learning Turkish is that easy for a foreigner.