Hen is de jammer en zij zijn de pack: Translating the official rules for flat track roller derby in a gender-neutral way

Abstract

Roller derby is a full-contact sport that originated in America but is increasingly popular in the Netherlands, though the rules have not been officially translated to Dutch. This study aims to translate the official rules of flat track roller derby to Dutch, while retaining the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association’s gender policy, which calls for gender-neutral language. In order to do this, strategies for gender-neutral and ungendered language are devised for Dutch, the most important of which is the use of gender-neutral pronouns in the third person singular. The pronouns ‘hen’ and ‘hun’ are used in accordance with the results of a survey carried out by Transgender Netwerk Nederland. While the singular use of these pronouns is not yet officially recognized by the Dutch Language Union, their use in these rules might further TNN’s push for their acceptance in Dutch