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Gender neutrality in languages with gendered third-person pronouns

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A gender-specific pronoun is a pronoun associated with a particular gender, such as a pronoun denoting female or male. Examples include the English third-person personal pronouns he and she.

A gender-neutral pronoun, by contrast, is a pronoun that is not associated with a particular gender, and that does not imply male or female. Most English pronouns are gender-neutral, including they (in both plural and singular uses).

Many of the world's languages do not have gender-specific pronouns. Others, however – particularly those which have a pervasive system of grammatical gender (or have historically had such a system, as with English) – have gender-specificity in certain of their pronouns, particularly personal pronouns of the third person.

Problems of usage arise in languages such as English, in contexts where a person of unspecified or unknown sex is being referred to, but the most natural available pronouns (he or she) are gender-specific. In such cases a gender-specific pronoun may be used with intended gender-neutral meaning, as he has been used traditionally in English, although she is now sometimes used instead. Use of singular they is another common alternative. Some attempts have been made, by proponents of gender-neutral language, to introduce artificial gender-neutral pronouns.

Overview

See also: Grammatical gender

Most languages of the world (including Austronesian languages, many East Asian languages, and the Uralic languages[1]) do not have gender distinctions in personal pronouns, just as most of them lack any system of grammatical gender. In others, such as many of the Niger–Congo languages, there is a system of grammatical gender (or noun classes), but the divisions are not based on sex.[2] Pronouns in these languages tend to be naturally gender-neutral.

In other languages – including most Indo-European and Afro-Asiatic languages – third-person personal pronouns (at least those used to refer to people) intrinsically distinguish male from female. This feature commonly co-exists with a full system of grammatical gender, where all nouns are assigned to classes such as masculine, feminine and neuter. However in some languages, such as English, this general system of noun gender has been lost, but gender distinctions are preserved in the third-person pronouns (the singular pronouns only, in the case of English).

(In languages with grammatical gender, even pronouns which are semantically gender-neutral may be required to take a gender for such purposes as grammatical agreement. Thus in French, for example, the first- and second-person personal pronouns may behave as either masculine or feminine depending on the sex of the referent; and indefinite pronouns such as quelqu'un ("someone") and personne ("no one") are treated conventionally as masculine. See Template:P/s.)

Issues concerning gender and pronoun usage commonly arise in situations where it appears necessary to choose between gender-specific pronouns, even though the sex of the person or persons being referred to is not known, not specified, or (in the plural case) mixed. In English and many other languages, the masculine form has traditionally served as the default or unmarked form; that is, masculine pronouns have been used in cases where the referent or referents are not known to be (all) female. This leads to sentences such as:

  • In English: If anybody comes, tell him. Here the masculine pronoun him refers to a person of unknown sex.
  • In French: Vos amis sont arrivés — ils étaient en avance ("Your friends have arrived – they were early"). Here the masculine plural pronoun ils is used rather than the feminine elles, unless it is known that all the friends in question are female (in which case the noun would also change to amies).

See also Template:P/s.

As early as 1795, dissatisfaction with this convention led to calls for gender-neutral pronouns, and attempts to invent pronouns for this purpose date back to at least 1850, although the use of singular they as a natural gender-neutral pronoun in English is much older.[3]

English

The English language has gender-specific personal pronouns in the third-person singular. The masculine pronoun is he (with derived forms him, his and himself); the feminine is she (with derived forms her, hers and herself); the neuter is it (with derived forms its and itself). These are described in full in the article on English personal pronouns.

Generally speaking, the masculine pronoun is used to refer to male persons and male animals; the feminine to refer to female persons and female animals, and sometimes figuratively in referring to such items as ships and countries; and the neuter to refer to inanimate objects and concepts, animals of unspecified or unimportant sex, and sometimes children of unspecified sex. For full details, see Gender in English. For the use of he for referring to a person of unspecified sex, as well as the various alternatives to this convention, see the discussion in the sections below.

The other English pronouns (the first- and second-person personal pronouns I, we, you, etc.; the third-person plural personal pronoun they; the indefinite pronouns one, someone, anyone, etc.; and others) do not make male–female gender distinctions, that is, they are gender-neutral. The only distinction made is between personal and non-personal reference (someone vs. something, who vs. what, etc.)

Historical and dialectal gender-neutral pronouns

Historically, there were two gender-neutral pronouns native to English dialects, ou and a. According to Dennis Baron's Grammar and Gender:[4]

In 1789, William H. Marshall records the existence of a dialectal English epicene pronoun, singular "ou": "'Ou will' expresses either he will, she will, or it will." Marshall traces "ou" to Middle English epicene "a", used by the 14th century English writer John of Trevisa, and both the OED and Wright's English Dialect Dictionary confirm the use of "a" for he, she, it, they, and even I. This "a" is a reduced form of the Anglo-Saxon he = "he" and heo = "she".

Baron goes on to describe how relics of these sex-neutral terms survive in some British dialects of Modern English (for example hoo for "she", in Yorkshire), and sometimes a pronoun of one gender might be applied to a person or animal of the opposite gender.

In some West Country dialects, the pronoun er can be used in place of either he or she, although only in weak (unstressed) positions such as in tag questions.[5]

More recently, in the city of Baltimore, and possibly other cities in the United States, yo has come to be used as a gender-neutral pronoun.[6][7]

It and one as gender-neutral pronouns

Further information: It (pronoun)

Whereas he and she are used for entities treated as persons (including supernatural beings and, sometimes, "higher" animals, especially pets), the pronoun it is normally used for entities not regarded as persons, though the use of he or she is optional for animals of known sex.[8] Quirk et al. give the following example, illustrating use of both it and her to refer to a bird:

  • "The robin builds its nest in a well-chosen position . . . and, after the eggs have hatched, the mother bird feeds her young there for several weeks."[8]

The pronoun it can also be used of children in some circumstances, for instance when the sex is indefinite or when the writer has no emotional connection to the child, as in a scientific context.[8] Quirk et al. give the following example:

  • "A child learns to speak the language of its environment."[8]

According to The Handbook of Non-Sexist Writing, it is sometimes the "obvious" choice for children.[9] Examples given include

  • "To society, a baby's sex is second in importance to its health."

but also the more colloquial

  • "When the new baby comes, it's going to sleep in Lil's room."

However, when not referring specifically to children, it is not generally applied to people, even in cases where their sex is unknown.

Another gender-neutral pronoun that can be used to refer to people is the impersonal pronoun one. This can sometimes be used to avoid gender-specification issues; however, it cannot normally substitute for a personal pronoun directly, and a sentence containing he or she would need to be rephrased, probably with change of meaning, to enable one to be used instead. Compare:

  • Each student should save his questions until the end.
  • One should save one's questions until the end.

In everyday language, generic you is often used instead of one: "You should save your questions until the end."

Generic he

Further information: He. See also Template:P/s.

The use of he to refer to a person of unknown gender was prescribed by manuals of style and school textbooks from the early 18th century until around the 1960s, an early example of which is Anne Fisher's 1745 grammar book "A New Grammar".[10] Older editions of Fowler also took this view.[11]

  • The customer brought his purchases to the cashier for checkout.
  • In a supermarket, anyone can buy anything he needs.
  • When a customer argues, always agree with him.

This may be compared to usage of the word man for humans in general.

  • "All men are created equal."
  • "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."
  • "Man cannot live by bread alone."

Gender-specific pronouns were also prescribed when one might presume that most members of some group are the same gender (although in recent times, such presumptions are seen as offensive).

  • A secretary should keep her temper in check.
  • A janitor should respect and listen to his employers.
  • Every plumber has his own tools.
  • A nurse must always be kind to her patients.

While the use, in formal English, of he, him or his as a gender-neutral pronoun has traditionally been considered grammatically correct,[12] such use can also be considered to be a violation of gender agreement, as well as being prejudicial and, sometimes, confusing or absurd.[13]

To redress the perceived imbalance resulting from use of generic he, some authors now adopt a generic she instead, or alternate between she and he. This and some other ways of dealing with the problem are described below.

Governments, clubs, and other groups have interpreted sentences like "every member must take off his shoes before entering the chapel" to mean that therefore female members may not enter the chapel. The Persons Case, the legal battle over whether Canadian women counted as legal persons eligible to sit in the Senate, partially turned on such a point.[14]

By contrast, the Constitution of Ireland describes the President of Ireland throughout as "he", yet two of the most recent presidents were women; in 1997, four of the five candidates in the election were women. Efforts in a court case to argue that "he" excluded women were dismissed by the Irish Supreme Court, which ruled the term "gender-neutral".[citation needed] (The Constitution's primary version is in Irish, where the male pronoun sé is considered gender-neutral.[citation needed])

Alternatives to generic he

See also Template:P/s

The generic, or universal, use of he as described above has been a source of controversy, as it appears to reflect a bias towards men and a "male-centric" society, and against women.[15] The 19th and 20th centuries saw an upsurge in consciousness and advocacy of gender equity, and this has led in particular to preferences for gender-neutral language. Alternatives to generic he have consequently gained in popularity. The chief of these are described in the sections below.

Singular they

Main article: Singular they

Since at least the 15th century, they (though, as with singular you, used with verbs conjugated in the plural, not the singular), them, their, theirs, and themselves or themself have been used, in an increasingly accepted fashion, as singular pronouns. This usage is often called the singular they. It is widely used and accepted in Britain, Australia, and North America in conversation. At least one style guide has, in the past, advised against this use.[16]

  • I say to each person in this room: may they enjoy themselves tonight!
  • Anyone who arrives at the door can let themself in using this key.
  • Eche of theym sholde ... make theymselfe redy. — Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon (c. 1489)

In modern colloquial speech, sometimes they is used even when the gender of the subject is obvious; they implies a generic (or representative of type class) rather than individuated interpretation:[17]

  • If some guy beat me up, then I'd leave them.
  • Every bride hopes that their wedding day will go as planned.

He or she, (s)he, etc.

The periphrastics "he or she", "him or her", "his or her", "his or hers", "himself or herself" are seen by some as resolving the problem, though they are cumbersome. They can be abbreviated in writing as "he/she", "(s)he", "s/he", "him/her", "his/her", "himself/herself", but when spoken have no accepted abbreviation. With the exception of "(s)he" and "s/he", one still has the choice of which pronoun to place first.

Alternation of she and he

Authors sometimes employ rubrics for selecting she or he such as:

  • Use the gender of the primary author.
  • Alternate between "she" and "he".
  • Alternate by paragraph or chapter.
  • Use he and she to make distinctions between two groups of people.

Invented pronouns

See also: Spivak pronoun

Some groups and individuals have invented and used non-standard pronouns, hoping they will become standard. Various proposals for such changes have been around since at least the 19th century. For example, abbreviated pronouns have been proposed: 'e (for he or she) or 's (for his/hers); h' (for him/her in object case); "zhe" (also "ze"), "zher(s)" (also "zer" or "zir"), "shi"/"hir", and "zhim" (also "mer") for "he or she", "his or her(s)", and "him or her", respectively; 'self (for himself/herself); and hu, hus, hum, humself (for s/he, his/hers, him/her, himself/herself). The American Heritage Book of English Usage says of these efforts:

Like most efforts at language reform, these well-intended suggestions have been largely ignored by the general English-speaking public, and the project to supplement the English pronoun system has proved to be an ongoing exercise in futility. Pronouns are one of the most basic components of a language, and most speakers appear to have little interest in adopting invented ones. This may be because in most situations people can get by using the plural pronoun they or using other constructions that combine existing pronouns, such as he/she or "he or she".[18]

According to Dennis Baron, the neologism that received the greatest partial mainstream acceptance was Charles Crozat Converse's 1884 proposal of thon, a contraction of "that one" (other sources date its coinage to 1858[19] or 1859[20]):

Thon was picked up by Funk and Wagnall's Standard Dictionary in 1898, and was listed there as recently as 1964. It was also included in Webster's Second New International Dictionary, though it is absent from the first and third, and it still has its supporters today.[21]

"Co" was coined by feminist writer Mary Orovan in 1970.[22] "Co" is in common usage in intentional communities of the Federation of Egalitarian Communities,[23] and "Co" appears in the bylaws of several of these communities.[24][25][26][27] In addition to use when the gender of the antecedent is unknown or indeterminate, some use it as gender-blind language and always replace gender-specific pronouns.[28]

The pronoun "phe" was coined at Brown University and is now used by The Female Sexuality Workshop at the University.[citation needed]

Summary

The following table summarizes the foregoing approaches.

  Nominative (subject) Oblique (object) Possessive determiner Possessive pronoun Reflexive
Traditional pronouns
He He laughed I called him His eyes gleam That is his He likes himself
She She laughed I called her Her eyes gleam That is hers She likes herself
One One laughed I called one One's eyes gleam That is one's One likes oneself
Conventions based on traditional pronouns
She/he She/he laughed I called him/her His/her eyes gleam That is his/hers She/he likes him/herself
S/he (compact) S/he laughed I called him/r His/r eyes gleam That is his/rs S/he likes him/rself
Singular they They laughed I called them Their eyes gleam That is theirs They like themself
Invented pronouns
Spivak (old) E laughed I called em Eir eyes gleam That is eirs E likes eirself
Spivak (new)[29] Ey laughed I called em Eir eyes gleam That is eirs Ey likes emself
Humanist[30] Hu laughed I called hum Hus eyes gleam That is hus Hu likes humself
Per[31] Per laughed I called per Per eyes gleam That is pers Per likes perself
Thon[32] Thon laughed I called thon Thons eyes gleam That is thons Thon likes thonself
Jee, Jeir, Jem[33] Jee laughed I called jem Jeir eyes gleam That is jeirs Jee likes jemself
Ve[34] Ve laughed I called ver Vis eyes gleam That is vis Ve likes verself
Xe[35] Xe laughed I called xem Xyr eyes gleam That is xyrs Xe likes xemself
Ze (or zie or sie) and zir[36] Ze laughed I called zir/zem Zir/Zes eyes gleam That is zirs/zes Ze likes zirself
Ze (or zie or sie) and hir[37] Ze laughed I called hir Hir eyes gleam That is hirs Ze likes hirself
Ze and mer[38] Ze laughed I called mer Zer eyes gleam That is zers Ze likes zemself
Zhe, Zher, Zhim[39] Zhe laughed I called zhim Zher eyes gleam That is zhers Zhe likes zhimself

Many of these newly-coined pronouns are also used by members of the transgender community, particularly those who consider themselves to be of non-binary gender. Some of these individuals strongly advocate the use of singular they for the situations in which gender-neutral pronouns are traditionally used (when the referent could be of any gender), maintaining that these alternate pronouns do have connotations of non-binary gender.

Other languages

Indo-European Languages

In most Indo-European languages (though not in the modern Indo-Iranian languages) third-person pronouns are gender-specific, while first and second person pronouns are not.

For example, in French,

  • First person singular je ('I'), me ('me')
  • Second person singular (familiar) tu, te ('you')
  • First person plural nous ('we', 'us')
  • Second person plural vous ('you')
  • Third person possessives leur ('their') and son/sa/ses ('his'/'her'/'its'/'their')

are all gender-inclusive; but

  • Third person pronouns il ('he'), le ('him'), ils ('they', referring to an all-male or mixed-gender group) are all masculine.
  • Third person pronouns elle ('she'), la ('her') and elles ('they', referring to an all-female group) are all feminine.

In some languages (including most modern Germanic languages) this distinction is neutralised in the plural: English and Modern Russian both have gender-inclusive forms for the third person plural pronouns: 'they'/'them' and они (oni).

Where a language has grammatical gender, gendered pronouns are sometimes used according to the grammatical gender of their antecedent, as French il ('he') for le livre ('the book' - masculine), whereas in Spanish, el libro is also masculine, but it would not be considered correct to refer to it by using the masculine pronoun él. Instead, something such as "Where is the book?" "It is on the table", would be rendered as "¿Dónde está el libro?" "Está sobre la mesa" where the pronoun is omitted. However, when the pronoun is used as a direct object, gender-specific forms reappear in Spanish. The sentence I can't find it. (always referring to the masculine noun libro (book)) would be No lo encuentro, whereas if I can't find it refers to a magazine (revista in Spanish, which is feminine) then the sentence would be No la encuentro.

If it is absolutely necessary to provide a subject when referring to an object, a demonstrative can be used instead of a pronoun: ¿Qué es eso? translates literally What is that?. And a suitable answer would be Eso es un libro or Eso es una revista, (That's a book, That's a magazine) with the genderless eso as subject in both cases.

Besides there may be gender-specific pronouns in languages where grammatical gender has otherwise been largely lost or reduced. Danish continues to distinguish gender in third person singular pronouns, even though it no longer distinguishes masculine and feminine nouns grammatically.

For some languages, such as Norwegian and Swedish, there has been considerable effort in trying to provide for gender-neutral expression.

Icelandic

Icelandic uses a similar system to other Germanic languages in distinguishing three 3rd-person genders in the singular - hann (masculine gender), hún (feminine gender), það (neuter gender). However it also uses this three-way distinction in the plural: þeir (m. only), þær (f. only), þau (n., which includes mixed gender). It is therefore possible to be gender-specific in all circumstances should one wish - although of course þau can be used for gender-inclusiveness. Otherwise the form used is determined grammatically (i.e., by the gender of the noun replaced). In general statements the use of menn could be preferable as it is less specific than þau.

Norwegian

In Norwegian a new word is proposed, hin ('sie' or 'hir') to fill the gap between the third person pronouns hun ('her') and han ('him'). Hin is used, but in limited groups; it is not yet embraced by society as a whole. One can also use man or en or den (en means 'one'). These three are considered impersonal.

Swedish

In some dialects of the Swedish language there is a word hän (borrowed from Finnish) that means either han ('he') or hon ('she'). [citation needed] It has spread to hacker slang. Some more common gender-inclusive pronouns however are hen ('he'/'she') and henom ('him'/'her'). [citation needed] The Swedish Language Council recommends den ('it') for third person singular of indefinite gender. However, large parts of the Swedish LGBT community consider this a derogatory term, since it implies that the person referred to is linguistically equated with a lifeless thing. Instead the terms hen and henom is preferred if one wants to refer to someone without a definite placement inside the binary system of masculine and feminine.

In Sweden the word "hen", "henom", and "hens" has recently become more accepted in general communication as an alternative to he/she, him/her, and his/hers, respectively.[citation needed]

Tocharian

Uniquely among Indo-European languages, Tocharian A (also known as Eastern Tocharian) distinguishes gender in the first person, using näṣ for the male speaker and ñuk for the female speaker.[40]

Romance languages

The choice of possessive pronoun in many Romance languages is determined by the grammatical gender of the possessed object; the gender of the possessor is not explicit. For instance, in French the possessive pronouns are usually sa for a feminine object, and son for a masculine object: son livre can mean either "his book" or "her book"; the masculine son is used because livre is masculine. Similarly, sa maison means either "his house" or "her house" because "maison" is feminine. Non-possessive pronouns, on the other hand, are usually gender-specific.

As in French, Portuguese and Catalan also determine the gender of object but not of the possessor, by possessive pronouns. Seu stands for a masculine object in both languages (o seu livro/el seu llibre), while Portuguese uses sua and Catalan seva, seua or sa for feminine ones (a sua mansão/la seva mansió). In some Brazilian sociolects and in rapid speech in all of its dialects, the ⟨u⟩ in sua may be completely elided, making pairs where Brazilian Portuguese and Catalan terms do not differ significantly in pronunciation and meaning.

In contrast, Spanish possessive pronouns agree neither with the gender of the possessor nor with that of the possession. In the third person, the possessive pronoun su (or sus for plural - number agrees with the possession) is used. Example: Su libro could mean either "his book" or "her book", with the gender of the possessor being made clear from the context of the statement. Pronouns for referring to people in Spanish have gender - él for "him" and ella for "her", there is also the gender neutral lo for "it". Spanish pronouns are usually part of the verb and are only used separately when making a distinction. e.g. The verb vivir - "to live" would usually be conjugated in the third person as vive - "He/she lives". To make a distinction one might say "ella vive en Madrid pero él vive en Barcelona" - "She lives in Madrid but he lives in Barcelona".

Italian also behaves like French, with phrases such as il mio/tuo/suo libro not implying anything about the owner's sex or the owner's name's grammatical gender. In the third person, if the "owner's" sex or category (person vs thing) is an issue, it is solved by expressing di lui, di lei for persons or superior animals or di esso for things or inferior animals. Lui scese e portò su le valigie di lei (He went downstairs and brought her luggage upstairs). This rarely happens, though, because it is considered inelegant and the owner's gender can often be inferred from the context, which is anyhow much more important in an Italian environment than in an English-speaking one.

Chinese

Written Chinese has gone in the opposite direction, from non-gendered to gendered pronouns, though this hasn't affected the spoken language.

In spoken standard Mandarin, there is no gender distinction in personal pronouns: the pronoun tā (他) can mean "he", "she", "ze", or "it". However, when the antecedent of the spoken pronoun tā is unclear, native speakers will assume it is a male person.[41] In 1917, the Old Chinese graph tā (她, from nǚ 女, "woman") was borrowed into the written language to specifically represent "she" by Liu Bannong. As a result, the old character tā (他), which previously also meant "she" in written texts, is sometimes restricted to meaning "he" only. In contrast to most Chinese characters coined to represent specifically male concepts, the character tā is formed with the ungendered character for person rén (人), rather than the character for male nán (男)."[42]

The creation of gendered pronouns in Chinese was part of the May Fourth Movement to modernize Chinese culture, and specifically an attempt to assert sameness between Chinese and the European languages, which generally have gendered pronouns.[41] Of all the contemporary neologisms from the period, the only ones to remain in common use are tā (它) for objects, tā (牠, from niú 牛, "cow") for animals, and tā (祂 from shì 示, "revelation") for gods. Although Liu and other writers tried to popularize a different pronunciation for the feminine tā, including yi from the Wu dialect and tuo from a literary reading, these efforts failed, and all forms of the pronoun tā retain identical pronunciation. This identical pronunciation of the split characters holds true not only for Mandarin but also for many of the varieties of Chinese.[42] There is a recent trend on the Internet for people to write "TA" in Latin script, derived from the pinyin romanization of Chinese, as a gender-neutral pronoun.[43][44]

The Cantonese third person singular pronoun is keui5 (佢), and it may refer to people of either gender. For a specifically female pronoun, some writers replace the person radical rén (亻) with the female radical nǚ (女), forming the character keui5 (姖). However, this analogous variation to tā is neither widely accepted in standard written Cantonese nor is it grammatically or semantically required. Moreover, while the character keui5 (佢) has no meaning in classical Chinese, the character keui5 (姖) has a separate meaning unrelated to its dialectic use in standard or classical Chinese.[45]

Japanese

Further information: Gender differences in spoken Japanese

Written Japanese underwent a transition similar to Chinese when an archaic demonstrative kare (彼) was resurrected to translate the 'he' of European languages, while a word kanojo (彼女) was invented to translate 'she'. In the spoken language, the words carry the connotation of boyfriend and girlfriend respectively, and instead ano hito (あの人, literally 'that person') is used in those cases where a pronoun is required. Unlike Western languages, pronouns in Japanese are a type of nouns rather than a distinct class.

Nevertheless, pronouns in Japanese usually have traditionally carried a strong gender connotation (though it has somewhat weakened nowadays), even first-person ones. For instance, ore (俺 or オレ) or boku (僕 or ボク) is used as 'I'/'me' mainly by men (women have begun using boku nowadays), while watashi (私 or わたし) or atashi (あたし or アタシ) is used by females.

Korean

Korean nowadays uses two different gender-specific pronouns not previously in everyday use. They have developed alongside the globalization of English and have become standard use in Seoul dialect. For males and neutral objects one can use 그, additionally with a suffix. For females, 그녀 has come into use, though can still have a somewhat demeaning connotation (녀 being the Chinese-derived (女) for woman). However, in place of these pronouns, gender-neutral 이 사람 is often heard instead.

Afro-Asiatic languages

In most Afro-Asiatic languages only the first-person pronouns (singular and plural) are gender-inclusive: second and third person pronouns are gender-specific.

Thai

Thai pronouns are numerous. Here is only a short list.

First person Second person Third person
masculine ผม (phom) นาย (nai) (informal) หมอนั่น (mhor nun) (derogative)
feminine ดิฉัน (di chan) ชั้น (chan) นางนั่น (nang nun) (derogative)
neuter ฉัน (chan) เรา (rao) คุณ (khun) เธอ (ther) เขา (khao)

The pronoun เธอ (ther, lit: you) is semi-feminine. It can be used when the speaker or the listener (or both) are female. It is seldom used when both parties are male.

Esperanto

Main article: Gender-neutral pronouns in Esperanto

Esperanto has no universally-accepted gender-neutral pronouns, but there are several proposals. Zamenhof proposed using the pronoun ĝi (literally "it"). Some writers also use other established pronouns like tiu ("this" or "that") or oni ("one"). Still other writers use neologisms such as ŝli for this purpose.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Siewierska, Anna; Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns; in Haspelmath, Martin; Dryer, Matthew S.; Gil, David; Comrie, Bernard (eds.) The World Atlas of Language Structures, pp. 182–185. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-19-925591-1
  2. ^ Corbett, Greville G. (2011). Dryer; Haspelmath, Martin (eds.). "The World Atlas of Language Structures Online". Munich: Max Planck Digital Library. Retrieved 2013-04-27. {{cite web}}: |chapter= ignored (help)
  3. ^ Williams, John (1990s). "History — Modern Neologism". Gender-Neutral Pronoun FAQ. Retrieved 2007-01-01.
  4. ^ Baron, Dennis (1986). Grammar and Gender. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-03526-8. as cited by: Williams, John (1990s). "History - Native-English GNPs". Gender-Neutral Pronoun FAQ. Retrieved 2007-01-01.
  5. ^ Arthur Hughes, Peter Trudgill, Dominic Watt, English Accents and Dialects: An Introduction to Social and Regional Varieties of English in the British Isles, 5th edition, Routledge, 2012, p. 35.
  6. ^ [1]
  7. ^ Mignon Fogarty. "Grammar Girl / Yo as a Pronoun.".
  8. ^ a b c d Quirk, Randolph; Greenbaum, Sidney; Leech, Geoffrey; Svartvik, Jan (1985). A comprehensive grammar of the English language. Harlow: Longman. pp. 316–317, 342. ISBN 978-0-582-51734-9.
  9. ^ Miller, Casey; Swift, Kate (1995) [1981]. Mosse, Kate (ed.). The Handbook of Non-Sexist Writing (3rd British ed.). London: The Women's Press. p. 58. ISBN 0-7043-4442-4.
  10. ^ Patricia T. O'Conner; Stewart Kellerman (July 21, 2009). "All-Purpose Pronoun". The New York Times.
  11. ^ Fowler, H.W. (2009) [1926]. A Dictionary of Modern English Usage. Original 1926 edition with an introduction and notes by David Crystal. Oxford University Press. pp. 648–649. ISBN 978-0-19-958589-2.
  12. ^ Huddleston, Rodney; Pullum, Geoffrey K. (2002). The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 492. ISBN 0-521-43146-8.
  13. ^ Miller, Casey; Swift, Kate (1995) [1981]. Mosse, Kate (ed.). The Handbook of Non-Sexist Writing (3rd British ed.). London: The Women's Press. pp. 46–48. ISBN 0-7043-4442-4.
  14. ^ "Alberta's Famous Five named honorary senators." The Globe and Mail, October 11, 2009.
  15. ^ Dale Spender, Man Made Language, Pandora Press, 1998, p. 152.
  16. ^ Strunk, William Jr.; White, E.B. (1979) [1959]. The Elements of Style (3rd ed.). Allyn and Bacon. pp. 60–61. ISBN 0-205-19158-4.
  17. ^ Michael Newman (1996) Epicene pronouns: The linguistics of a prescriptive problem; Newman (1997) "What can pronouns tell us? A case study of English epicenes", Studies in language 22:2, 353–389.
  18. ^ "5.4, Gender: Sexist Language and Assumptions — epicene pronouns". The American Heritage Book of English Usage. Houghton Mifflin Company. 1996. ISBN 0-395-76785-7.
  19. ^ Writing about literature: essay and translation skills for university, p. 90, Judith Woolf, Routledge, 2005
  20. ^ http://www.wordnik.com/words/thon
  21. ^ Baron, Dennis (1986). "10, The Word That Failed". Grammar and Gender. Yale University Press. p. 201. ISBN 0-300-03883-6. {{cite book}}: External link in |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help)
  22. ^ Baron, Dennis. "The Epicene Pronouns". Retrieved 2010-06-22.
  23. ^ Kingdon, Jim. "Gender-free Pronouns in English". Retrieved 2010-06-22.
  24. ^ "Skyhouse Community – Bylaws". Retrieved 2010-06-22.
  25. ^ "Bylaws – Sandhill – 1982". Retrieved 2010-06-22.
  26. ^ "Bylaws – East Wind – 1974". Retrieved 2010-06-22.
  27. ^ "Bylaws – Twin Oaks". Retrieved 2010-06-22.
  28. ^ "Visitor Guide – Twin Oaks Community: What does all this stuff mean?". Retrieved 2010-06-22.
  29. ^ Williams, John. "Technical - Declension of the Major Gender-Neutral Pronouns". Gender-Neutral Pronoun FAQ
  30. ^ Used in several college humanities texts published by Bandanna Books. Originated by editor Sasha Newborn in 1982.
  31. ^ MediaMOO's "person" gender, derived from Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time (1979), in which people of 2137 use "per" as their sole third-person pronoun.
  32. ^ proposed in 1884 by American lawyer Charles Crozat Converse. Reference: "Epicene". The Mavens' Word of the Day. Random House. 1998-08-12. Retrieved 2006-12-20.
  33. ^ Jayce's Gender-Neutral Pronouns
  34. ^ Proposed by New Zealand writer Keri Hulme some time in the 1980s. Also used by writer Greg Egan for non-gendered artificial intelligences and "asex" humans.
    Egan, Greg (July 1998). Diaspora. Gollancz. ISBN 0-7528-0925-3.
    Egan, Greg. Distress. ISBN 1-85799-484-1.
  35. ^ A discussion about theory of Mind: a paper from 2000 that uses and defines these pronouns
  36. ^ Gender-Neutral Pronoun FAQ
  37. ^ Example:
    Bornstein, Kate. My Gender Workbook. ISBN 0-415-91673-9.
  38. ^ Creel, Richard (1997). "Ze, Zer, Mer". APA Newsletters. The American Philosophical Association. Retrieved 2006-05-15.
  39. ^ Foldvary, Fred (2000). "Zhe, Zher, Zhim". The Progress Report. Economic Justice Network. Retrieved 01-05 2010. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); line feed character in |accessdate= at position 6 (help)
  40. ^ Fortson, Benjamin W. (2010). Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction (2nd ed.). Chichester, United Kingdom; Malden, Massachusetts: John Wiley & Sons; Blackwell Publishing. p. 407. Retrieved 12 May 2011.
  41. ^ a b Ettner, Charles (2001). "In Chinese, men and women are equal - or - women and men are equal?". In Hellinger, Maris; Bussmann, Hadumod (eds.). Gender Across Languages: The Linguistic Representation of Women and Men. Vol. 1. John Benjamins Publishing Company. p. 36.
  42. ^ a b Liu, Lydia (1995). Translingual Practice: Literature, National Culture, and Translated Modernity--China, 1900-1937. Stanford University Press. pp. 36–38.
  43. ^ Baidu.com
  44. ^ Victor Mair (2013), "He / she / it / none of the above," Language Log, April 19, 2013.
  45. ^ "Chinese Character Database: Phonologically Disambiguated According to the Cantonese Dialect". Chinese University of Hong Kong. 2006. Retrieved 2007-02-16. The entry for "佢" (Humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk) notes its use as a third-person pronoun in Cantonese, but the entry for "姖" (Humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk) does not; it only gives the pronunciation geoi6 and notes that it is used in place names.
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