Gender-appropriate language: Great excitement about a tiny little pause in speech
Women are included, it is often said, when only the men are addressed. With the help of a pause in speech, gender is becoming more and more common. Some find it unheard of.
Recently, in a telephone conversation with Veronika Puttinger, the press spokeswoman for the Salzburg State Theater, she could be heard very clearly, the hundredth of a second pause between the word “visitor” and the appended female ending “-innen”. The speaking pause stands for the written gender asterisk for “visitors”. In the spoken form, the asterisk burns up, so to speak. It is swallowed.
Since spring, presenters on ORF and on German television have been increasingly using this speaking pause in order to then also use the female form to …
Accessed on November 29, 2021 at 10:15 am on https://www.sn.at/salzburg/chronik/gendergerechte-sprache-grosse-aufregung-um-eine-winzig-kleine-sprechpause-113206825