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Imagine I want to translate to Russian the word "community of working writers" such that "writers" means both male and female ones.

Here are obvious variants:

  • Сообщество работающих литераторов и литераторш
  • Сообщество работающих писателей и писательниц

Both are so long that they can compete with German.

Is there a word for "writer", which is gender-neural and shorter than "писатели и писательницы"?

I am fine with rarely used or archaic terms.

Баян Купи-ка
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Glory to Russia
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  • may be not exactly what you are looking for, but in the feminist/gender-equal circles (esp. in some Russian media) it is common to use such word as "авторка". To me it is not exactly as serious писательница or литераторша though. Can argue whether you like it or not, but it is a separate heated discussion. Such category of words are referred as феминативы in Russian and more and more of those are being created nowadays. – Darya Shcherbakova May 09 '19 at 23:07
  • What the "working" is for? To contrast with no longer working ex-writers? The whole phrase sounds slightly odd to me. – tum_ May 10 '19 at 05:31
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    How about Сообщество работающих авторов? – ralien May 10 '19 at 12:32
  • In Russian feminine is not diminishing, unlike in inferior languages. – user11858 May 10 '19 at 19:02

3 Answers3

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In Russia there's ongoing discussion - and it's getting quite fervent- on whether so called feminitives (the English wiki is called just "Gender_marking_in_job_titles") should or shouldn't be used.

Unlike the German tradition of always using feminitives (I'm sticking to this word for the lack of a shorter term) in phrases like "Enwtickler/in gesucht" in Russia only particular words have equally used feminine forms but even in that case they quite often differ stylistically. Compare, for instance, парикмахер and парикмахерша - both are used but the feminine one is quite colloquial.

Ironically words писательница and работница are one of few exceptions - they are actually used quite often and considered to be stylistically quite neutral. However for a Russian speaker something like союз писателей и писательниц or клуб работников и работниц will sound strange. De-facto the masculine form will be used.

VCH250
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shabunc
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    Ah, and don't forget that sometimes what seems to be a feminitive is a totally different profession (e.g. машинист and машинистка) – Alissa May 09 '19 at 13:22
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    @Alissa sometimes it's not even a profession - like генеральша is not a woman-general ) – shabunc May 09 '19 at 13:25
  • -ша used to denoted the wife of 'X'. It's not productive in that sense now, but still retains that flavour. – VCH250 May 11 '19 at 05:38
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Currently in Russian collective designation of people engaged in the same profession or occupation defaults to the plural masculine form, in which case it becomes unisex even if a feminine form exists in the singular.

В русском языке названия профессий рабочих и должностей служащих выражаются формой мужского рода и в случаях, когда относятся к лицам женского пола в официально-деловом стиле. Существует небольшая группа имен существительных, которые образуют парные наименования женского рода, принятые в нейтральных стилях речи. В разговорном языке широко распространены названия профессий женского рода со суффиксами –ша, -ха, -лка, -чка, которые содержат в себе оттенок пренебрежительности

Многие имена существительные мужского рода, обозначающие лицо по профессии, занимаемой должности, выполняемой работе, занятию, ученому или почетному званию и т. д., в официально-деловом стиле сохраняют свою форму и в тех случаях, когда относятся к лицам женского пола, например: педагог, токарь, геолог, физик, конструктор, новатор, судья, адвокат, доцент, кандидат наук, ветеран труда, лауреат международного конкурса, мастер спорта.

Во множественном числе грамматические значения рода не разграничиваются.

EUGENIJA ĆUTO - "ΡOД ИМЕН СYЩЕСТВИТЕЛЬНЫХ В НАЗВАНИЯХ ПΡOФЕСCИЙ", pp. 1, 2

Thus

Community of working writers = Сообщество работающих литераторов/писателей/мастеров пера

similar to English

Баян Купи-ка
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    I'd add that there are some professions for which there is a widely-used feminine version that is not diminishing, and that there are lots of people that try to invent feminine version for every profession, but it's rather controversial and often their versions don't sound so good. – Alissa May 09 '19 at 13:20
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    indeed, however the specific suffixes mentioned in the citation only create derogatory connotation in modern language – Баян Купи-ка May 09 '19 at 13:26
  • As of today? Did I miss something important? How was it yesterday? – Zeus May 10 '19 at 03:23
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    @Zeus don't be too picky, "as of today" means just "по состоянию на сегодняшний день" and does not necessarily implies that it was different previously. – shabunc May 10 '19 at 07:43
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    'As of today' strongly implies that something has changed or will change – VCH250 May 11 '19 at 05:45
  • @VCH250 necessarily HAS changed or WILL change? not MIGHT have changed or MIGHT change? – Баян Купи-ка May 11 '19 at 06:46
  • @VCH250 also, can you explain your edit, what was wrong in the previous wording? there might exist is totally not uncommon as per Google – Баян Купи-ка May 11 '19 at 06:48
  • @shabunc, yes it does. It means specifically "начиная с сегодняшнего дня". – Zeus May 11 '19 at 16:29
  • Zeus now it doesn’t – shabunc May 11 '19 at 17:06
  • according to at least one source it has as many as 3 meanings: 1) so far up until today, 2) from today onward, and 3) today only, if anyone can suggest another English equivalent of по состоянию на сегодняшний день, i'm all ears – Баян Купи-ка May 11 '19 at 17:13
  • guys, I've asked as English SE - so far I have to admin that it looks like @Zeus was right - https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/498090/can-i-use-as-of-today-as-a-substitute-to-nowadays – shabunc May 11 '19 at 18:12
  • it's impossible to draw reliable conclusions from as few as 2 answers which don't agree with each other, another answer cites all 3 meanings, classing the one closer to what i was implying as the rarest, but i meant currently, which may change – Баян Купи-ка May 11 '19 at 20:00
  • On my part (aside from the quoted Cambridge dic), I can just say that in 100% of cases I encountered this very common phrase (while living in an English-speaking country) it meant what I said. There may be regional differences though, as usual. – Zeus May 13 '19 at 00:13
  • fair enough, you live and you learn, unfortunately didn't have an opportunity of living in an English speaking country – Баян Купи-ка May 13 '19 at 08:58
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Фразу "community of working writers" вполне можно перевести как "сообщество пишущих". В подходящем контексте (да, пожалуй, и без него) смысл передаётся точно.

Michael_1812
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