<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Ten years before the European Parliament adopted the <italic>Gender-neutral language in the European Parliament</italic> multilingual guidelines (2008), the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Translation had already included a section on this subject in the third edition of its <italic>English Style Guide</italic> (1998). The original text was later reproduced in other European Union’s style guides, namely the <italic>Interinstitutional Style Guide</italic>, the <italic>European Commission Style Guide</italic> and the ephemeral <italic>European Commission Guidelines for Inclusive Communication</italic>, withdrawn shortly after publication due to political and religious complaints. After a quarter of a century, the guidelines have drifted apart through their respective updates. What are the exact inconsistencies of the current style guides? How do the changes reflect developments in the field of inclusive language? And do the guidelines include gendered terms and expressions relevant for EU linguists? A unified EU policy on linguistic sexism across its languages and institutions expressed in a set of relevant and coherent language guidelines seems vital to enabling and fostering the implementation of non-sexist language as a gender mainstreaming tool in the EU.</p>
</abstract>

Ten years before the European Parliament adopted the Gender-neutral language in the European Parliament multilingual guidelines (2008), the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Translation had already included a section on this subject in the third edition of its English Style Guide (1998). The original text was later reproduced in other European Union’s style guides, namely the Interinstitutional Style Guide, the European Commission Style Guide and the ephemeral European Commission Guidelines for Inclusive Communication, withdrawn shortly after publication due to political and religious complaints. After a quarter of a century, the guidelines have drifted apart through their respective updates. What are the exact inconsistencies of the current style guides? How do the changes reflect developments in the field of inclusive language? And do the guidelines include gendered terms and expressions relevant for EU linguists? A unified EU policy on linguistic sexism across its languages and institutions expressed in a set of relevant and coherent language guidelines seems vital to enabling and fostering the implementation of non-sexist language as a gender mainstreaming tool in the EU.

The Directorate-General for Translation’s gender-neutral English guidelines (1998-2022)

Topics in Linguistics

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Ten years before the European Parliament adopted the Gender-neutral language in the European Parliament multilingual guidelines (2008), the European...

The Directorate-General for Translation’s gender-neutral English guidelines (1998-2022)

Publié en ligne: 28 juin 2023

Pages: 1 - 17

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/topling-2023-0001

Mots clés
Directorate-General for Translation, EU, gender-neutral language, style guides, institutional translation

© 2023 María López-Medel, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The Directorate-General for Translation’s gender-neutral English guidelines (1998-2022)

Publié en ligne: 28 juin 2023

Pages: 1 - 17

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/topling-2023-0001

Mots clésDirectorate-General for Translation, EU, gender-neutral language, style guides, institutional translation

© 2023 María López-Medel, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Mots clés
Directorate-General for Translation, EU, gender-neutral language, style guides, institutional translation