[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #42725: Allow gender specific translations

[WordPress Trac]

#42725: Allow gender specific translations
-------------------------+------------------------------
 Reporter:  yoavf        |       Owner:
     Type:  enhancement  |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal       |   Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  I18N         |     Version:  trunk
 Severity:  normal       |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  has-patch    |     Focuses:
-------------------------+------------------------------
Description changed by yoavf:

Old description:

> For years, the WordPress translators community has needed to resort to
> '''painful compromises''' for languages with grammatical gender, where
> women are often discriminated by default.
>
> From strings like `Lead Developer` to simply `Author` or `Editor`, some
> languages will always refer to these as males, regardless of the user
> self-identification.
>
> While modern English grammar is exceptionally capable of being gender
> neutral, many other languages do not share this trait. Forcing all
> languages to adopt a gender-neutral grammar, even when they're not
> capable of it, diminishes the appeal of WordPress to non-English speaking
> users, especially women - because in almost all languages, pseudo gender-
> neutral grammar just uses the male form.
>
> This ticket is a tracking ticket for the various tasks needed to allow
> for gender-specific translations
>
> '''How gender specific translations will work with gettext'''
> - We will modify some of the existing translations functions (in a
> backward compatible way) to accept an optional user gender value.
> - When this happens, the POT generation tools will create 3 different
> strings, differentiated by a specific context.
> - On output, the correct translation will be loaded based on the value of
> the gender property
>
> '''What needs to be done'''
> - Introduce a user profile field to store users' gender and a
> `get_user_gender()` function. See #42900
> - Add unit tests to current translation functions
> - Add an optional `options` parameter to `__()`, `_x()`, `_n()`, `_nx()`
> that will be used to pass the gender to the translation functions
> - Update documentation
> - Update GlotPress to group translations.
>
> ----
>
> '''Notes:'''
> - This ticket originally included proof-of-concept patches. It has since
> been rewritten to reference other tickets to tackle the various tasks.
> - The details of the implementation were discussed during contributor day
> at WCUS 2017. Big thanks to @gregross, @johnbillion, @nullbyte for making
> this happen, thanks to @nacin as well for his input.
> - Major props to @glueckpress for being a driving force in creating this
> with his [https://wordpress.tv/2017/06/27/caspar-hubinger-big-little-
> shame-a-tale-of-empowered-user-experience-through-localisation/ WC Europe
> 2017 talk].

New description:

 For years, the WordPress translators community has needed to resort to
 '''painful compromises''' for languages with grammatical gender, where
 women are often discriminated by default.

 From strings like `Lead Developer` to simply `Author` or `Editor`, some
 languages will always refer to these as males, regardless of the user
 self-identification.

 While modern English grammar is exceptionally capable of being gender
 neutral, many other languages do not share this trait. Forcing all
 languages to adopt a gender-neutral grammar, even when they're not capable
 of it, diminishes the appeal of WordPress to non-English speaking users,
 especially women - because in almost all languages, pseudo gender-neutral
 grammar just uses the male form.

 This ticket is a tracking ticket for the various tasks needed to allow for
 gender-specific translations

 '''How gender specific translations will work with gettext'''
 - We will modify some of the existing translations functions (in a
 backward compatible way) to accept an optional user gender value.
 - When this happens, the POT generation tools will create 3 different
 strings, differentiated by a specific context.
 - On output, the correct translation will be loaded based on the value of
 the gender property

 '''What needs to be done'''
 - Introduce a user profile field to store users' gender and a
 `get_user_gender()` function. See #42900
 - Add unit tests to current translation functions
 - Add an optional `options` parameter to `__()`, `_x()`, `_n()`, `_nx()`
 that will be used to pass the gender to the translation functions
 - Update documentation
 - Update GlotPress to group translations.

 ----

 '''Notes:'''
 - This ticket originally included proof-of-concept patches. It has since
 been rewritten to reference other tickets to tackle the various tasks.
 - The details of the implementation were discussed during contributor day
 at WCUS 2017. Big thanks to @gregross, @johnbillion, @nullbyte for making
 this happen, and thanks to @nacin for his input.
 - Major props to @glueckpress for being a driving force in creating this
 with his [https://wordpress.tv/2017/06/27/caspar-hubinger-big-little-
 shame-a-tale-of-empowered-user-experience-through-localisation/ WC Europe
 2017 talk].

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/42725#comment:16>
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