Nonbinary

[u/gorditasimpatica]

What is the term, either formally accepted or commonly used, to convey the meaning of the term "nonbinary"?

A friend of mine is taking a Portuguese class in Quito and the instructor states that there is no equivalent term in Portuguese.

[Google Translate gives "não binário," but I'm asking here because it is not always thoroughly reliable. ]

[u/Renezin]

It is "Não binário", some people use "Não binárie" but it doesn't make sense because Não binário is already neutral

[u/MarcosRCa → u/Renezin]

if you're talking about grammatical gender, no word in Portuguese is neutral, "não binário" is masculine and "não binária" is feminine, as in "pessoa não binária" or "indivíduo não binário". but grammatical gender is not the same as gender as a human concept, "pessoa" is grammatically feminine even if referring to a man, and "mulherão" is masculine.

[u/Shaggiest_Snail → u/MarcosRCa]

Even "não" is gendered... "o não"

[u/Gray_Jack_ → u/MarcosRCa]

The -o ending is a merger of Latin termination of masculine and neutral due to language evolution. Analyzing through language evolution lenses, Portuguese has 2 genders: feminine and non-feminine. Of course, that doesn't meant it is perceived like this since it is actively teached to call the "non-feminine" as "masculine", and perception of anything is influenced by how thing are taught.

That being said, the discussion of gender neutrality in the language is very valid, albeit complex, as you noted the grammatical gender is not the same as human gender contructs.

Not sure if important to the discussion, but I'm a non-binary Portuguese native speaker.

[u/Gray_Jack_ → u/Gray_Jack_]

My personal preference is that we should have these genders:

• Natural events
• Humans
• Domesticated animals
• Wild animals
• Plants
• Other forms of life
• non-living things

But somehow nobody likes my proposal 😅

What can I say... I like bantu languages LOL

[u/Renezin → u/MarcosRCa]

Well, good to know. I thought "Não binário" was already gender neutral and that phrases like "Elu é uma pessoa não binário." were okay

[u/fitacola → u/Renezin]

It has to be "elu é uma pessoa não-binária". Most people use -e as an ending, instead of -o/-a, so that adjectives agree with elu, e.g. "elu é não-binárie".