Gender neutral language in Portuguese

The vast majority of Portuguese words have one of two grammatical genders: the feminine or the masculine. As such, Portuguese is not a gender-neutral language. Expressions such as "obrigado" or "obrigada" change based on your gender. Sometimes, words with the masculine form are seen as the default. Adjectives like "alto" and "alta" change based on gender as well. Many people use an 'e' ending, such as "obrigade". The creation and implementation of gender neutral terms in the Portuguese language aims to make non-binary people feel included.
It is important to note that, in Portuguese, there’s a distinction between gender-neutral language and inclusive language. Though the two overlap in some aspects, the latter makes use of already existing binary terms and its main goal is to include both men and women in conversations. It comes as a response to the way Portuguese uses the masculine to encompass the feminine. This can be seen, for example, when groups are referred to with the masculine and plural form of a noun even when they’re not made-up exclusively of men.
How the sentence "good night, everyone!" is traditionally said and what each category of language suggests as an alternative:
Common language 	Gender-neutral language 	Inclusive language
Boa noite a todos! 	Boa noite a todes! 	Boa noite a todos e todas!
Boa noite a todos! 	Boa noite a todos, todas e todes!	Boa noite a todos, todas e todes!
Boa noite a todas as pessoas!	Boa noite a todas as pessoas! 	Boa noite a todas as pessoas!
Boa noite a todo mundo! 	Boa noite a todo mundo! 	Boa noite a todo mundo!
This article will focus on gender neutral Portuguese language. While, in Portuguese, non-living things are also attributed a gender, that is not meant to change with the use of neutral language. The sentence "my chair is purple" would still be said like "a minha cadeira é roxa," in which cadeira is still a feminine noun and the article a, the possessive pronoun minha and the adjective roxa are also feminine. Moreover, words like pessoa ("person"), which are gendered but used to refer to anyone regardless of gender, remain the same and gender agreement is still expected in sentences that use them.
Gender-neutral neologisms are known as neolinguagem (neolanguage), though that term also includes modified words that are not universally gender neutral.
==Language sets==
There are two established ways of representing language sets in the Portuguese language. The first one, ela/dela follows the same format as the English "she/her," however, it is very incomplete. In Portuguese, word endings indicate gender, so the format ela/dela/-a was suggested as an alternative. Though this format is more complete than the previous one, it has been criticized. Some of the criticisms are that it doesn't take the particularities of the Portuguese language into account; that the other elements in the language that indicate gender, like articles and demonstrative pronouns, should also be declared and that article and word ending choice are unrelated to pronoun choice. For these reasons, the recommended representation is a/ela/a, which follows the format article/pronoun/word ending. An even more complete version of this format would be a/uma/da/ela/dela/minha/essa/a. Note that, because pronouns aren't the only language elements that indicate gender in Portuguese, some people suggest calling these sets language sets instead of pronoun sets.
===Articles===
In Portuguese, there are two types of articles: definite articles - a, o, as, os (equivalent to the English "the") - and indefinite articles - uma, um, umas, uns (equivalent to the English "a" and "an") - all of which are gendered.
The definite articles a and o compared to neutral alternatives:
a/o 	ae 	el 	fi 	i 	u 	ê 	le
a/o estudante	ae estudante	el estudante	fi estudante	i estudante	u estudante	ê estudante	le estudante
There are many other alternatives, though ê is, by far, the most used one. As for indefinite articles, these depend on the word ending that was chosen.
Articles affected by word ending:
Word ending 	a 	ae 	e 	eo 	o 	oa
um + word ending	uma(s)	umae(s)	ume(s)	umeo(s)	umo(s)	umoa(s)
===Pronouns===
In Portuguese, there are two standard personal pronouns for the third person singular and two for the third person plural. Ela is equivalent to the English "she" and ele is equivalent to the English "he," while elas and eles are both equivalent to the English plural "they." Portuguese-speaking non-binary people who don't feel comfortable with these have had to come up with neopronouns, along with its contractions.
Ela and ele compared to some Portuguese neopronouns:
ela/e(s) 	ael(s) 	el(s) 	el@(s)* 	elu(s) 	elx(s)* 	ile(s) 	ilu(s) 	êla(s) 	ilo(s) 	ila(s) 	elo(s)
dela/e(s) 	dael(s) 	del(s) 	del@(s) 	delu(s) 	delx(s) 	dile(s) 	dilu(s) 	dêla(s) 	dilo(s) 	dila(s) 	delo(s)
nela/e(s) 	nael(s) 	nel(s) 	nel@(s) 	nelu(s) 	nelx(s) 	nile(s) 	nilu(s) 	nêla(s) 	nilo(s) 	nila(s) 	nelo(s)
aquela/e(s) 	aquael(s) 	aquel(s) 	aquel@(s) 	aquelu(s) 	aquelx(s) 	aquile(s) 	aquilu(s) 	aquêla(s) 	aquilo(s) 	aquila(s) 	aquelo(s)
daquela/e(s) 	daquael(s) 	daquel(s) 	daquel@(s) 	daquelu(s) 	daquelx(s) 	daquile(s) 	daquilu(s) 	daquêla(s) 	daquilo(s) 	daquila(s) 	daquelo(s)
naquela/e(s) 	naquael(s) 	naquel(s) 	naquel@(s) 	naquelu(s) 	naquelx(s) 	naquile(s) 	naquilu(s) 	naquêla(s) 	naquilo(s) 	naquila(s) 	naquelo(s)
àquela/e(s) 	àquael(s) 	àquel(s) 	àquel@(s) 	àquelu(s) 	àquelx(s) 	àquile(s) 	àquilu(s) 	àquêla(s) 	àquilo(s) 	àquila(s) 	àquelo(s)
praquela/e(s)	praquael(s)	praquel(s)	praquel@(s)	praquelu(s)	praquelx(s)	praquile(s)	praquilus(s)	praquêla(s)	praquilos(s)	praquilas(s)	praquelo(s)
*The use of these sets has been increasingly discouraged for the following reasons: they aren't convenient for people who use screen readers; they can be hard to read for people with dyslexia and they aren't orally pronounceable. 
The most well known and most used Portuguese neopronoun is elu. Its use is encouraged, mainly because it fits in with the pronouns ela ("she") and ele ("he") and it is easily pronounceable. Some people pronounce it as "élu", while others pronounce it as "êlu". A third option is saying "elú".
Some pronouns can depend on the word ending chosen by the user. While each pronoun, typically, has a word ending tied to it, using concordant language is not mandatory. Someone may use the word ending eo while using the pronoun ile, for example.
Pronouns that can be affected by word ending:
Word ending 	a 	ae 	e 	eo 	eo 	o 	o 	o 	u 	u 	oa
est + word ending 	esta(s) 	estae(s) 	este(s) 	esteo(s) 	esteo(s)	esto(s)	esto(s) 	esto(s)	estu(s)	estu(s) 	estoa(s)
ess + word ending 	essa(s) 	essae(s) 	esse(s) 	esseo(s) 	esseo(s)	esso(s)	esso(s) 	esso(s)	essu(s)	essu(s) 	essoa(s)
mi or minh + word ending	minha(s)	minhae(s)	minhe(s)	minheo(s)	meo(s) 	meo(s) 	minho(s)	meu(s) 	meu(s) 	minhu(s)	minhoa(s)
tu + word ending 	tua(s) 	tuae(s) 	tue(s) 	tueo(s) 	teo(s) 	teo(s) 	tuo(s) 	teu(s) 	teu(s) 	tu(s) 	tuoa(s)
su or su + word ending 	sua(s) 	suae(s) 	sue(s) 	sueo(s) 	seo(s) 	seo(s) 	suo(s) 	seu(s) 	seu(s) 	su(s) 	suoa(s)
The pronouns esta and essa can follow one of two paths when being converted to neutral forms. Est/ess + word ending or letters of personal pronoun before consonant + st/ss + letters of personal pronoun after consonant. The latter only works if the personal pronoun has a consonant in the middle, so it'd work for ilu and ile (issu/istu and isse/iste) but not for ael (aess/aest), for example.https://diversidades.fandom.com/pt-br/wiki/Neopronome
===Word endings===
In the Portuguese language, the ending of a word typically indicates gender. For this reason, the vast majority of words have two forms: the masculine and the feminine. Feminine words end in a, while masculine words end in o. The word "friend," a noun, can translate to amiga or amigo. The same rule applies to adjectives, however, so "tall" can translate to either alta or alto. Moreover, adjectives and nouns are expected to agree in gender. Some non-binary people use more than one word ending and may not mind that non-concordant language is used when referring to them, like in the sentence ae "meu amiga é bonito". New word endings were created to accommodate people who don't feel comfortable with either of the standard word endings.
Word endings a and o compared to neutral alternatives:
a/o 	ae 	e 	eo 	ie 	u 	y 	oa
menina/o 	meninae 	menine 	menineo 	meninie 	meninu 	meniny 	meninoa
parceira/o 	parceirae 	parceire 	parceireo 	parceirie 	parceiru 	parceiry 	parceiroa
companheira/o	companheirae	companheire	companheireo	companheirie	companheiru	companheiry	companheiroa
adulta/o 	adultae 	adulte 	adulteo 	adultie 	adultu 	adulty 	adultoa
aluna/o 	alunae 	alune 	aluneo 	alunie 	alunu 	aluny 	alunoa
ambígua/o 	ambíguae 	ambígue 	ambígueo 	ambíguie 	ambígu 	ambíguy 	ambíguoa
amiga/o 	amigae 	amigue 	amigueo 	amiguie 	amigu 	amiguy 	amigoa
feia/o 	feiae 	feie 	feieo 	feie 	feiu 	feiy 	feioa
dona/o 	donae 	done 	doneo 	donie 	donu 	dony 	donoa
convidada/o 	convidadae 	convidade 	convidadeo 	convidadie 	convidadu 	convidady 	convidadoa
brasileira/o 	brasileirae 	brasileire 	brasileireo 	brasileirie 	brasileiru 	brasileiry 	brasileiroa
garota/o 	garotae 	garote 	garoteo 	garotie 	garotu 	garoty 	garotoa
estrangeira/o	estrangeirae	estrangeire	estrangeireo	estrangeirie	estrangeiru	estrangeiry	estrangeiroa
moça/o 	moçae 	moce 	moceo 	mocie 	moçu 	mocy 	moçoa
menina/o 	meninae 	menine 	menineo 	meninie 	meninu 	meniny 	meninoa
solteira/o 	solteirae 	solteire 	solteireo 	solteirie 	solteiru 	solteiry 	solteiroa
prima/o 	primae 	prime 	primeo 	primie 	primu 	primy 	primoa
namorada/o 	namoradae 	namorade 	namoradeo 	namoradie 	namoradu 	namorady 	namoradoa
política/o 	políticae 	polítique 	polítiqueo 	polítiquie 	políticu 	polítiquy 	políticoa
psicóloga/o 	psicólogae 	psicólogue 	psicólogueo 	psicóloguie 	psicólogu 	psicóloguy 	psicólogoa
veterana/o 	veteranae 	veterane 	veteraneo 	veteranie 	veteranu 	veterany 	veteranoa
zagueira/o 	zagueirae 	zagueire 	zagueireo 	zagueirie 	zagueiru 	zagueiry 	zagueiroa
usuária/o 	usuáriae 	usuárie 	usuárieo 	usuárie 	usuáriu 	usuáriy 	usuárioa
noiva/o 	noivae 	noive 	noiveo 	noivie 	noivu 	noiviy 	noivoa
obrigada/o 	obrigadae 	obrigade 	obrigadeo 	obrigadie 	obrigadu 	obrigady 	obrigadoa
secretária/o 	secretáriae 	secretárie 	secretárieo 	secretárie 	secretáriu 	secretáriy 	secretárioa
Some words, such as heteronyms, are also inflected in the beginning, examples and proposals below.https://bloguealternative.wordpress.com/lista-de-neologismos/https://edisciplinas.usp.br/pluginfile.php/7546402/mod_resource/content/1/Comunica%C3%A7%C3%A3o%20para%20todas%2C%20todos%20e%20todes_UnB.pdfhttps://repository.ufrpe.br/bitstream/123456789/3756/1/tcc_art_enildavaleriagomesmarinho.pdf
madrinha/padrinho 	nadrinhe 	xadrinhe 	adrinhe 	fadrinhe 	badrinhe 	zadrinhe
madre/padre 	nadre 	xadre 	adre 	fadre 	badre 	zadre
madrasta/padrasto 	nadraste 	xadraste 	adraste 	fadraste 	badraste 	zadraste
matriarca/patriarca 	natriarca 	xatriarca 	atriarca 	fadriarca 	batriarca 	zatriarca
maternidade/paternidade	naternidade	xaternidade	aternidade	faternidade	baternidade	zaternidade
mãe/pai 	nãe/nam 	pãe 	ade 	ade 	ade 	zazi
==See also ==
*Glossary of Brazilian Portuguese gender and sex terminology
*Glossary of European Portuguese gender and sex terminology
==References==
==External links==
*Set tester
Category:Gender neutral language