Russian & same-sex marriage

[tisoi.livejournal.com]

Today in class we learned the terms for being married мужем/женат and single замужем/холост and how the word used depends upon whether or not the person is male or female. I also noticed that the male word for married contains жена (wife). And that the female word for married & single contain муж (husband).

Now, I know that same-sex marriages are far from being legalized in Russia, but it is in other countries. Could one say он мужем to refer to a man who has a husband and она женат for a woman with a wife?

And since I'm gay myself, do I say я замужем to say that I'm single? And what does холост mean exactly?

Спасибо!

Comments

[glorfindeil.livejournal.com]

No.

[tisoi.livejournal.com]

So, a man with a husband is still женат?

[phoonzang.livejournal.com]

another meaning of холостой is blank (shot, cartrdridge :)

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

First of all, you got the words quite wrong.

Он женат = he is married.
Он холост = he is not married.
Она замужем = she is married.
Она не замужем = she is not married.

Note that замужем is a single word, not two.
There is no other variations.

As of the same-sex relationships, as they are not legal in Russia, there is no "legal" expression for them. I'm sure the pleople in the gay community have their own slang expressions for that, but I cannot help with that as I am not aware of their subculture lingo.

[auditorsha.livejournal.com]

холост = single for men
женат = married for men

не за мужем =single for woman
за мужем = married for woman

состою в браке =beeing married for men and women both
I think that for a gay marriages there is no rules )

I think that you can use whatever variant to say that you are single:
Я холост
or
Я не за мужем
or
Я не состою в браке

[avoider.livejournal.com]

Terms for being married замужем/женат and single не замужем/холост

[taurvat.livejournal.com]

A man with a husband is not something that has a word for it in Russian. So if you want to discuss same-sex marriages, you'd better choose another language :)

If you say something like "женат" for person in a same-sex couple, this will most likely mean that he plays an active role, and the other one plays passive. And vise-versa, if you say that he is "замужем", people will assume that he plays a passive role.

In general, I should say that however you spell it, it will sound like a sick joke. The only way when it sounds the closest to 'not so insanely hilarious' is when you use legal terms like "сочетался браком", which are sexless in their nature.

[tisoi.livejournal.com]

сочетался браком

Does this mean "joined in marriage?"

[glorfindeil.livejournal.com]

All terms about marriage in Russian are gender attached, so you can not speak this way.

There is no any terms in Russian to describe gay "marriages" like marriages, you may only speak about such thing like "partnership", etc.

[glorfindeil.livejournal.com]

Yes, but it sounds archaic - "сочетался".

[archaicos.livejournal.com]

You can't say "Она мужем". It has to be either of "Она замужем" or something like "Она замужняя женщина" (similarly to "Он женатый мужчина"). "За мужем" (although in your context it must be written as one word) literally means "behind a/the husband". Мужем alone is the instrumental case form the noun муж and as such has no meaning when used alone or outside of context that requires the instrumental case (as in "Она пошла за мужем" (=She followed her husband) or "Книга была написана ее мужем" (=The book was written by her husband)).

If you're gay and aren't legally married to anyone, you can't be замужем/замужняя or женат(ый). You can be холост(ой)/незамужем/неженат(ый)=unmarried or just, well, gay/homosexual/lesbian/etc (for which I'm not sure there's a politically correct term in Russian without any negative connotations as the post-USSR society still largely doesn't treat gays with dignity, any minority for that matter).

[alex-mashin.livejournal.com]

You learned badly. Она замужем = She [is] married. Она не замужем = She [is] single.

You can say Он замужем or Она жената, and it can only mean single-sex «marriage», but it will inevitably sound funny, because grammar itself resists the expansion of the meaning of the word «marriage».

And yes, you can say Я замужем for I am married [to a man] or Я не замужем for I am not married [to a man]. It will sound camp, but it's your choice. If you want to express this idea in more precise terms, say Я состою в гражданском партнёрстве.

The word холост is the absolute form of the adjective холостой, unmarried. Usually the word is applied to men only, however, in priciple, a woman could say about herself Я холоста, but it will sound feminist. A better choice for a woman will be Я не замужем.

[oiseau-russe.livejournal.com]

And you have less archaic состоит в (законном) браке

[oiseau-russe.livejournal.com]

I also noticed that the male word for married contains жена (wife). And that the female word for married & single contain муж (husband).

Yes, you are right. "Женат" means "has a wife", it's the same construction as in couples рог-рогат ets. And "за мужем" means "behind the husband".

[mithrilian.livejournal.com]

@не за мужем =single for woman
за мужем = married for woman@

замужем - no space, it's a single word.

[glorfindeil.livejournal.com]

Less archaic, but very official...

[mithrilian.livejournal.com]

To add to what's already been said.

Они женаты - they are married. It's a common expression and means a heterosexual couple. But there is no mirror они замужем.

I think you can say они женаты about either a homosexual or lesbian couple. Language-wise it's ok. If I am speaking Russian about a couple from a country where same-sex marriages are legalised, it would be perfectly all right grammatically.

Speaking about such couple within a context of Russia, they would say они живут вместе or они сожительствуют or (lower speech) они спят вместе. Same would be said about any heterosexual couple who are not legally married.

[warpod.livejournal.com]

за мужем = behind the husband
замужем = married

[oiseau-russe.livejournal.com]

Yes, it is, but сочетаться is not less official IMHO. Anyway I can see no less official gender-neutral word.

[zhiharka.livejournal.com]

You may say они живут как муж и жена.

[evaluna68.livejournal.com]

Even if same-sex marriage isn't legal in Russia, aren't there terms that Russian-speakers use to describe same-sex marriages (or civil partnerships, etc.) in places where it is legal? Considering the number of Russian-speakers there are in somewhere like, say, New York, the issue must come up now and again.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

I think you overestimate the issue. Russian speakers in somewhere like New Yrk would most likely use American English terms, or, if they are too closely connected with their motherland's culture, Russian gay lingo.

The most neutral, non-slang way to say that I could think of would be "партнёр" (like, у него есть партнёр).

[alexzzzzz.livejournal.com]

«Я холостая»

[alexzzzzz.livejournal.com]

«Они живут вместе»

It's simple, clear, grammatically and actually correct, and doesn't depend on homo- or heterosexuality.

[alex-mashin.livejournal.com]

I used the absolute (brief) form. It's grammatically possible.