105: Journal #3

[Molly Cramer]

The linguistic aspect of Swedish that interests me most is also linked to culture! Sweden has a very egalitarian culture. Very few people live too far below or above the average and there seems to be a lot of emphasis put on gender equality. For instance, in Sweden both new moms and new dads get time off from work so that women do not feel like they can't go back to work after having children. I was reading an article recently about a new trend in Swedish grammar that I thought related to this cultural phenomenon! In Swedish if you want to say "he" you say "han" and if you want to say "she" you say "hon". Simple enough! Well, if you want to say he/she you could use the general "man" almost like in English when a speaker could say "one really ought to do..." or you could say "han eller hon". Recently, however, a new trend has erupted in Swedish culture where people are saying a new pronoun "hen" to mean the gender neutral version of "man" or "one" because a lot of Swedes think saying "man" is discriminatory. I asked my language partner about this trend and she said that typically Swedes will only say "hen" sarcastically or in a funny way. I do wonder, however, if it will start to get more serious usage.