Date: 26 Jan 93 22:01:52
Distribution: world
From: dean@coconut.rsmas.miami.edu (Dean Churchill)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.bahai
Organization: University of Miami/RSMAS
Subject: Re: Inclusive language

The problem of "inclusiveness" has been discussed for a number of
years in Baha'i literary circles.  The grammar and vocabulary of
Persian and Arabic have a substantial impact on the problems of
translation.  Note, first of all, that Persian is an Indo-European
language (the stuff that most western languages are made of), while
Arabic is a semitic language, a near cousin of Hebrew.  The difference
of language family accounts for the mutually exclusive grammar of
pronouns between Persian and Arabic. 

Persian has pronouns that have no gender.  So in Persian there is no
difference between "He did it" versus "She did it".  The same pronouns
are used with respect to God.  So there is no gender issue in Persian
literature in this regard.  (Nouns in Persian, according to the
classical grammarians, are grammatically feminine).  In addition, there
is no capitalization in Persian or Arabic, so it is never an issue
whether "he" should be capitalized or not when used in reference to
God. 

Arabic is 180 degrees the opposite of Persian.  Arabic has only
masculine and feminine pronouns (both singular and plural).  So it is
grammatically impossible to be gender non-specific, short of employing
an idiom.  Classical Arabic, which is the language used by both the
Bab and Baha'u'llah for much of their writing, is traditionally
oriented toward describing all people using masculine nouns and
pronouns.  Baha'u'llah generally follows this convention.  Notable
exceptions are when Baha'u'llah explicitly makes some law or
exhortation binding on both men and women, in which case he writes,
viz., "it is incumbent on the men and women to...". 

Shoghi Effendi, the deceased Guardian of the Baha'i Faith, set the
standards for translation of the Persian and Arabic Baha'i scripture
into English.  He was educated at Oxford University, and was
influenced to a great extent by the style of writing in the King James
version of the Bible.  This same style of writing characterizes most
of his translations of scripture. 

Over the years, as this issue of inclusiveness has arisen, it is my
impression that there is little interest in tweaking the translations,
in an ad hoc fashion, to conform to the sentiments of the hour. Since
the style of translation is ultimately a subjective value judgement, I
think it is preferable to maintain consistency, as opposed to revising
everything every decade or so, as some Christian scholars prefer to
do.  Although it may be true that the translations are not `keeping up
with the times', as it were, there is so much original untranslated
scriptures in the Baha'i Faith, and so many serious difficulties with
the translations (i.e. conveying the basic meaning accurately and
poetically), that it would be a waste of time and money to change the
existing translations. 

The Universal House of Justice, however, in its own original
publications is clearly sensitive to this issue, as the vocabulary of
their statements to the peoples of the world are clearly and
explicitly inclusive of women and men. 
-----------------------
Dean Churchill                  | The opinions are, of course, mine,
Asst. Prof. of Meteorology      | not those of the University of Miami
Rosenstiel School of Marine     | nor any other organization.
and Atmospheric Science         | All other relevant disclaimers also apply.
University of Miami             | 
(305) 361-4048                  |