The Gideonse Bible
The Gideonse Bible: "The big problem with the Spanish word for husband is that is looks and sounds a hell of a lot like the word for wife. Esposo is husband and esposa is wife; the o makes the word masculine, and the a makes it feminine. The similarity of the two words is linguistically efficient, I guess, but it can be a little confusing and challenging.
It's confusing for my Spanish teachers who think that when I'm referring to the person I live with, I'm saying esposa with 1) a bad accent or 2) the wrong gender. And it's challenging for me because I don't want to make a big deal about the o in esposo and, thusly, my gay husband. When you say husband in English, there's pretty much no room for misinterpretation. In Spanish, there's lots of room, an uncomfortably large amount of room.
Last semester, my teacher corrected me twice when I was referring to mi esposo.
'Espos-AH,' he said.
'Espos-OH,' I said.
'No, espos-AH,' he said.
Pause.
'Trust me, it's espos-OH,' I said. The other students laughed, my teacher looked perplexed for moment, and then one of his eyebrows went up.
'Ohhh.'
Yeah."
It's confusing for my Spanish teachers who think that when I'm referring to the person I live with, I'm saying esposa with 1) a bad accent or 2) the wrong gender. And it's challenging for me because I don't want to make a big deal about the o in esposo and, thusly, my gay husband. When you say husband in English, there's pretty much no room for misinterpretation. In Spanish, there's lots of room, an uncomfortably large amount of room.
Last semester, my teacher corrected me twice when I was referring to mi esposo.
'Espos-AH,' he said.
'Espos-OH,' I said.
'No, espos-AH,' he said.
Pause.
'Trust me, it's espos-OH,' I said. The other students laughed, my teacher looked perplexed for moment, and then one of his eyebrows went up.
'Ohhh.'
Yeah."
posted by cockoholick at 10:58 PM
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