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Orden de matrícula
Nov 5, 2016 18:51
7 yrs ago
Spanish term

Él toda la vida me trató en masculino...

May offend Spanish to English Other Social Science, Sociology, Ethics, etc. Talk about the power of being ourselves
Hi everyone!

I am translating a TED talk from Spanish (Argentina) to English, where the speaker is a transgender person and is talking about how a cousin of him used to "treat" "call" "address" her in the past when she was still a girl....
It is a Spanish speaker from Argentina.

I am not sure how to translate the verb "tratar" to English in this case.

The complete phrase is "Él toda la vida me trató en masculino, a solas."
Proposed translations (English)
4 +4 He addressed me in the masculine (gender) my entire life
4 During my entire life I was only treated by him as though I was a man.
4 Addressed me as a man all my life

Discussion

DanielaValera (asker) Nov 9, 2016:
Hi, everybody! I used the verb "address" for this translation. The speaker in the video is a transgender man who used to be a woman. The gender had to be clearly specified or stated in the translation because it was very obvious that the speaker wanted to make that difference between the feminine and the masculine.
Charles Davis Nov 6, 2016:
Not a problem in my view We do have a visible grammatical gender in English (him/her?), though not in the second person. But every moderately educated person knows what grammatical gender is and what "in the masculine" means. And everyone knows that masculine is related to male and feminine to female, so "addressed me in the masculine" will be understood by every reader, without further explanation, to mean addressing the person as if (s)he were male.
Robert Carter Nov 6, 2016:
@Neil That may be so, but it could also be that the speaker subsequently goes on to talk about that aspect. From the context, we can't know this, but it won't hurt to include this clearly perceptible nuance in the translation in any case.
neilmac Nov 6, 2016:
OK, BUT As the translation is into English, and we don't have a visible grammatical gender, I think it's a waste of time trying to preserve it, unless you also provide a lengthy footnote or explanation of the grammatical gender idiosyncrasies of Romance languages for native English speakers.
Charles Davis Nov 5, 2016:
"En masculino", with "tratar", must refer to linguistic gender. You might say that addressing someone in the masculine gender (saying "qué lindo estás" instead of "qué linda estás", for example) is equivalent to treating them as male, but they are different statements. I see no good reason for not translating this accurately.

Proposed translations

+4
7 mins
Selected

He addressed me in the masculine (gender) my entire life

Yes, I agree with you, I think "address" is right here.
I also think "in the masculine gender" is more specific than "as a male", because I presume it's about the use of language.
Peer comment(s):
agree Charles Davis : Yes, except I would say "All my life he has addressed me in the masculine" (which I was just about to post), since otherwise it sounds as though her life has finished. It's the LAm preterite with present perfect sense. It must refer to linguistic gender.
3 mins
Yes, I agree with your grammatical point too, thanks, Charles.
agree Marcelo González
32 mins
Thanks, Marcelo.
agree María Perales
14 hrs
Thanks, María.
agree Eleanor Bridgwood (X)
22 hrs
Thanks, Eleanor.
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Ok! Thank you very much. I think the ver address is the right one to use in this case. He is a transgender man who used to be a woman so, the gender has to be clearly stated."
34 mins

During my entire life I was only treated by him as though I was a man.

Another suggestion...
Something went wrong...
4 mins

Addressed me as a man all my life

= "All my life he always spoke to me [as] man-to-man whenever we were alone..."

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Note added at 5 mins (2016-11-05 18:56:42 GMT)
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All my life, he treated me like a man...
He always knew me as a man... All my life.

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Note added at 6 mins (2016-11-05 18:57:37 GMT)
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He always knew me as a male (rather than female)...

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Note added at 12 mins (2016-11-05 19:04:03 GMT)
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NB: As English doesn't have much of a grammatical gender system, in translation I don't really see the point of trying to convey the grammatical gender notion, which is part and parcel of the overall issue IMHO.

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Note added at 13 mins (2016-11-05 19:05:01 GMT)
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I think the case in question is about much more than grammatical gender.

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Note added at 1 day9 mins (2016-11-06 19:00:51 GMT)
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Nobody seems to be paying any attention, so now I'm 'shouting' : I THINK THE ISSUE IS ABOUT MUCH MORE THAN GRAMMATICAL GENDER.
Note from asker:
Hi neilmac, I understand what you are explaining. I used the verb "address" for the translation because it had to be a word that clearly stated the gender. The speaker is a transperson who transitioned from a woman to a man and he was talking about this issue of how a cousin used to treat, address, call him when they were children.
Something went wrong...
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