Gender neutral language: Difference between revisions

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Gender neutral language

Gender-neutral language, also called gender-inclusive language, is the practice of using words that don't give an idea of someone being female or male. For example, the word "fireman" gives the idea that a person in that work is male. An offer for a job as a "cleaning lady" gives the idea that only a woman should do the job. The gender-neutral alternatives are to say "fire fighter" and "janitor," respectively. Then it is easier to see that these jobs can be done by a person of any gender. Gender-neutral language is important in feminism, because changing the way that people talk can help make sexist ideas less common. For example, the sexist idea that some jobs should only be done by people of certain genders.

Gender-neutral language is also important to many people who have nonbinary gender identities. For one reason, this kind of talk helps fight against nonbinary erasure, which is the common but wrong and sexist idea that there are only two genders. Since gender-neutral language doesn't give the idea that a person is male or female, it can also apply to people who identify as other genders, outside of the gender binary. Nonbinary people can ask to be talked about in this way.

Gender-neutral language is both useful and necessary grammatically and socially for the situtations in which gender is varied/queer, mixed/diverse in a group, irrelevant/unwanted, secret or unknown.

Arabic[edit | edit source]

The Washington Post has reported that "Modern standard Arabic, based on Koranic classical Arabic, additionally has a dual option for nouns and verbs that doesn’t imply a specific gender. Some people therefore use the dual of they and you — “huma” (هما) and “intuma” (انتما) — as a gender-neutral alternative. Colloquial Arabic spoken today has largely done away with the dual, so this form can sound very formal to those not in the know."^[1]

Chinese[edit | edit source]

Pronouns

tā. Verbally all gendered pronouns sound the same, and so they technically can be gender neutral.

Titles

先生 (xian sheng). A gender neutral term to refer to a teacher, a new acquaintance with whom you are unfamiliar, or anyone with whom you are not on a first-name basis, though it is usually masculine-based.
师傅 (shi fu). A gender neutral term, though it is usually masculine-based, conveying respect to someone if you don't know their name, and it means "master."
老师 (lao shi). Standard word for teacher.
博士 (bo shi). Standard word for professor.
老板 (lao ban). Standard term for one's boss (say at work).
同学 (tong xue). Standard term for one's classmates

Family Terms

孩子 (hai zi). Standard gender neutral term for child.
家长 (jia zhang). Standard gender neutral term for parent.

Professions

服务员 (fu wu yuan). Standard word for server and/or gender neutral term for waiter/waitress.

Romantic

对象 (dui xiang). Term that means one's romantic partner. It is gender neutral.
配偶 (pei ou). Term that means one's partner in marriage. It is gender neutral.

Cornish[edit | edit source]

Cornish, like all other modern Celtic languages, has two grammatical genders: masculine and feminine. Although the way that gender-neutral nouns and non-binary people are referred to in terms of grammatical gender, and the impact that those nouns would have on adjectives, is yet to be determined, Cornish has a complete set of non-binary 3rd person singular pronouns:

Paradigm of the Cornish non-binary pronoun
Purpose	Word or element in Cornish	Examples
Personal pronoun	hynn, hydn, hedn	Hynn a wra dos avorow. They will come tomorrow.
Possessive adjective	ho² (causes soft mutation)	My a wra ho weles avorow. I will see them tomorrow.
Infixed pronoun	'gh^{(2/4 if desired by speakers to improve the sound of the sentence)}	My a'gh gwel/wel/kwel avorow. I will see them tomorrow.
Emphatic pronoun	hehynn, ehynn, hyhynn, etc.	Ny wra saw hehynn dos avorow. Only they will come tomorrow.
Conjugated prepositions	-m at the end of the masculine form	My a wra mos dhodhom avorow. I will go to them tomorrow. Ottoma lyver skrifys gansom. Here is a book written by them. Ny aswonnav travyth anodhom. I don't know anything about them. etc.

Dutch[edit | edit source]

There is more information about this topic here: gender neutral language in Dutch

English[edit | edit source]

There is more information about this topic here: gender neutral language in English

English is one of the easiest languages to speak in a gender neutral way. One reason for this is it is in the Germanic language family, it originally had three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. Another reason is that in the 1200s, English speakers stopped making gender a part of every noun, adjective, and article. Remnants of grammatical gender survived only in personal pronouns and some common nouns.^[2] On the other hand, a movement in the 18th century condemned neutral language like singular they, and insisted it sounded more educated to use masculine language like "he" instead, like in Latin. All these changes to English still have effects today, and sometimes create problems. For example, old laws are not clear about whether they use "he" to mean anybody, or men only. Linguists, feminists, and LGBT people have been working on finding the best solutions to the remaining problems with gender exclusive language. Over the past century, they created hundreds of pronouns, out of the lingering belief that "singular they" pronouns will not do. From the 1970s, they have also developed alternatives to gendered words, such as "mail carrier" rather than "mailman."

French[edit | edit source]

French, like other Romance languages (except for Asturian), traditionally has only two grammatical genders: masculine and feminine. Additionally, according to the standard language rules, masculine is always treated as the generic gender, meaning that a mixed-gender group will always be referred to in masculine (and not in feminine, unless everyone is a woman). These rules have been established over the centuries by men and male-led institutions like the Académie Française. In 1675, talking about the grammar of the French language, abbot Dominique Bouhours stated "When both genders meet, the most noble must prevail". French inclusive language refuses such rules, and feminist and queer activists work hard to try and rid French of its sexism. They have developed over the last few decades different ways to adapt the French language to be more inclusive of women and gender minorities.

However, there is not one single way to speak inclusively in French, but rather, there are a wide variety of tools and workarounds one can use to adapt one's language.^[3] It should also be noted that the "mainstream" inclusive language used by an ever growing number or people, journals and institutions aims at being inclusive of women. These changes, albeit fairly minimal, are still very controversial with certain people. The problem of a language inclusive of the nonbinary community hasn't yet reached the mainstream debate and remains mostly confined within queer and feminist circles.

Finally, as it is not officially recognised, it is important to mention that inclusive French might not be accepted in contexts where formal language is expected; such as exams, language proficiency tests, official documents etc.

Gender neutral pronouns[edit | edit source]

Singular pronouns[edit | edit source]

These pronouns are considered neopronouns and are used to refer to nonbinary people or someone whose gender is unknown. They are not formally recognised and are not usually used in what could be called "mainstream inclusive French". Their use is mostly limited to nonbinary people, feminist and queer circles as well as the internet. Because nothing is codified, there are almost no limits on what can be used, and a wide variety of options have been created and adopted by different people. Due to these circumstances, it is common for French gender non-conforming people to accept different sets of pronouns/neopronouns, or any pronouns/neopronouns. The lists below are not exhaustive.


Subject pronouns	use	Exemples
iel (can also be spelled ielle, yel or yelle)	The most common spelling is "iel". It is the main gender neutral pronoun used in French and is a contraction of the two binary pronouns "il" and "elle". For that reason some nonbinary people do not find it adequate and prefer to use other neutral alternatives. It is also used to refer to someone whose gender is yet to be determined.	"Iel est non-binaire. Iel n'est ni un garçon, ni une fille". "Quelqu'un a mangé le dernier gâteau au chocolat. Je ne sais pas qui c'est, mais iel aurait quand même pu en laisser un morceau pour les autres".
ille	Just like "iel", "ille" is a contraction of "il" and "elle", and therefore faces the same criticism. Its pronunciation can easily sound like the masculine "il" if the last syllable is not accentuated enough, which could either be considered a problem or an advantage depending on how one looks at it. An alternative pronunciation could be \ij\.	"Ille est arrivé-e hier soir"
el	Just like "iel", "el" is a contraction of "il" and "elle", and therefore faces the same criticism. Its pronunciation sounds like the feminine "elle". It could either be considered a problem or an advantage depending on how one looks at it.
ul or ol	These pronouns are usually preferred by those whose gender identity falls mostly or completely outside the gender binary. They are the most common gender neutral pronouns after "iel".	"Ul est parti en vacance. Ol va lu rejoindre dans quelques jours".
ael	"Ael" also does not stem from the contraction of "il" and "elle". Although any types of agreement can be used, it is most often paired with "-ae".	"Ael est allae en Australie pendant deux semaines" ‘’Çom’’ a neo pronoun derived from an archaic català pronoun “hom” used as an impersonal/gender neutral subject pronoun. Since Hom is similar to homme, the pronoun variation featured here is based off a similar Occitan pronoun Òm.


Object pronouns	use	exemples
lea	It is the main gender neutral object pronoun. It is used to refer to nonbinary people or someone whose gender is yet unknown. It is often paired with "iel"	"Iel est arrivé-e à la gare, je ne vais pas tarder à aller lea chercher"
lo or lu	These neopronouns are usually used to refer to those who chose to go by "ol" or "ul".	"Ol est arrivé-e à la gare, je ne vais pas tarder à aller lo chercher"
ellui	"Ellui" is most commonly used as a reflexive pronoun. it is otherwise found to sound clunky or hard to understand when used as a non-reflexive pronoun.	"Iel vient manger à la maison ce soir, je ne mais pas tarder à aller lea chercher à la gare. Nous irons manger chez ellui la semaine prochaine"


Possessive pronouns	use	exemple
mo and man	These result from the merging of the feminine possessive pronoun "ma" and the masculine "mon". A commonly used alternative to these would be the "alternating approach" where one refers to somebody using "ma" and "mon" alternatively.	"Iel est man meillleur-e ami-e depuis l'école primaire. Je lea connais depuis mes douze ans"

plural pronouns[edit | edit source]

agreements[edit | edit source]

German[edit | edit source]

There is more information about this topic here: gender neutral language in German

Pronouns[edit | edit source]

Zett
As
Dey

Hindi[edit | edit source]

Hindi is a gendered language.

Pronouns[edit | edit source]

Personal pronouns in Hindi are gender neutral.

Verb Conjugations[edit | edit source]

Although in 2014, India, the parent culture of Hindi formally recognized the rights of transgender, non-binary, genderqueer and gender-questioning people to determine their gender identification as going beyond the existing binary classifications of male or female, Hindi has lagged behind in that, in Hindi verbs are still conjugated along traditional binary male-female classifications.

This traditional gendered nature of verb conjugations in Hindi is problematic as it forces people with non-binary identities to misgender themselves.

In an attempt to address the limitations posed by the gendered nature of verb conjugations in Hindi, and to ensure students are not forced to misgender themselves, in 2016, some faculty at the University of Texas at Austin, shared an avant-garde proposal for a non-binary verb conjugation option that does not currently exist in Hindi. This proposal has largely been well received by colleagues and students alike (with some predictable backlash). They are currently in the process of creating a webpage dedicated to making Hindi pedagogy more inclusive, which will also include details of this proposal.

The proposal in a nutshell: Using the vowel ओ o non-binary verb conjugations is suggested .

In the gendered binary option: - male voice conjugations end in आ ā for masculine singular conjugations and ए e for masculine plural conjugations. - female voice conjugations end in ई ī for both, feminine singular and plural conjugations, with ई ī sometimes being nasalized to ईं ī̃ for plural conjugations. For a non-binary voice option, we suggest conjugations end in ओ o for both, non-binary singular and plural conjugations, with ओ o sometimes being nasalized to ओं õ for plural conjugations, along principles similar to conjugations for the female voice.

Adopting ओ o / ओं õ for a non-binary voice verb conjugation seems to be a straightforward approach without any disruption to the principles of Hindi verb conjugations.

So, for example, in the Habitual aspect the verb खाना / khānā “to eat”, would be conjugated as:

[MS = masculine singular, MP = masculine plural, FS= feminine singular, FP = feminine plural, NBS = non-binary singular, NBP = non-binary plural]

Present day binary conjugation:

MS-Present: मैं खाता हूँ mãĩ khātā hū̃ (I eat- male voice) MS-Past: मैं खाता था mãĩ khātā thā (I used to eat - male voice)

MP-Present: हम खाते हैं ham khāte hãĩ (we eat- male voice) MP-Past: हम खाते थे ham khāte the (we used to eat - male voice)

FS-Present: मैं खाती हूँ mãĩ khātī hū̃ (I eat - female voice) FS-Past: मैं खाती थी mãĩ khātī thī (I used to eat - female voice)

FP-Present: हम खाती हैं ham khātī hãĩ (we eat - female voice) FP-Past: हम खाती थीं ham khātī thī̃ (we used to eat - female voice)

Suggested non-binary conjugation for inclusion:

NBS-Present: मैं खातो हूँ mãĩ khāto hū̃ (I eat - suggested non-binary voice) NBS-Past: मैं खातो थो mãĩ khāto tho (I used to eat - suggested non-binary voice)

NBP-Present: हम खातो हैं ham khāto hãĩ (I eat - suggested non-binary voice) NBP-Past: हम खातो थों ham khāto thõ (we used to eat - suggested non-binary voice)

The Inclusive Hindi website: contains examples of how all tenses and aspect conjugations would look if one factors in the suggested non-binary option.

The same principle of using ओ o / ओं õ for a non-binary voice, when transferred on to certain classes of nouns and adjectives, may make one pause to ponder over how it may affect other parts of speech, specifically, possession (particularly the possessive particles in Hindi), the plural oblique case, and in some instances, overlap between the imperative/command construction and the one-time completed action past tense. However, going deeper, one realizes that interference is minimal, if at all. Just as some other aspects of Hindi grammar which on the surface seem the same, being clearly context and/or marker dependent become non-issues, this too, being clearly either context and/or marker dependent would not pose a problem. Also, having the ओ o/ओं õ sound ending to indicate possession is not alien in Hindi as observed in various varieties like Braj Bhāshā, to name one. Besides, for now this point is quite mute, given that currently there is no class of non-binary nouns in Hindi!

Icelandic[edit | edit source]

Italian[edit | edit source]

Italian, as with other romance languages, presents challenges for inclusivity of nonbinary genders in that grammatically there only exists masculine and feminine genders. Although it descended from Latin, which had 3 genders (masculine, feminine and neuter), it has since lost its neuter form. Nevertheless, different approaches may transform the way Italian is spoken to make it more gender inclusive. In standard Italian, pronouns tend to be omitted unless they are needed for emphatic affect. Ex. Mangia un panino means " ___ eats a sandwich"

Nouns[edit | edit source]

Italian has masculine and feminine grammatical genders, although some nouns ending in -e (singular)/ -i (plural) hint at a suggested neutral form not dissimilar from gender ambiguous nouns in Spanish (ex. el estudiante and la gente both end in -e even though they are gendered masculine and feminine). One idea therefore may be to use these endings for nouns to neutralize language. Possible noun endings that could work:

e, i. Already present in standard Italian
en, is. Nonstandard and not regularly used, taking from latin endings.
u, un, us. Nonstandard, taking from latin endings.
@. Similar to "chic@s" in Spanish
ə. The schwa, or scevà in Italian. In some regional languages, especially Neapolitan, the schwa is commonly found at the end of words, which can make many gendered words sound almost gender neutral. When spoken quickly, for listeners it can sound similar to removing the vowel, although it isn't because the schwa is a distinct sound.
*. The asterisk is used at the end of words to represent gender neutral vowels. This method has been used by Queer Italian activists and even has been sported in some Italian pride media.

Personal Pronouns[edit | edit source]

Ləi. Nonstandard Italian, to be used in conjunction with the schwa.
Loi/Luoi. Nonstandard Italian, not regularly used. (Nonbinary option as "singular they")
Ilu. Nonstandard Italian, status of use unknown.
Il@. Nonstandard Italian, status of use unknown.
Lau. Nonstandard Italian, status of use unknown.
Leu. Nonstandard Italian, status of use unknown.
Ciu. Nonstandard Italian Pronoun, inspired by the Word Cio/Ci, meaning "That". Use is unknown
Ci. Present in Standard italian as a pronoun that is neutral, but is used in only specific grammatical structures. Additionally, this pronoun is associated with the pronoun "We" in certain contexts.
Ne. Present in Standard Italian as a pronoun that is neutral, but like Ci, it is only used under certain circumstances.

Here is a hypothetical Pronoun model following the italian Neo Pronoun "Luoi".


Nominative	Genitive	Dative	Accusative	Instrumental
Luoi	Ne/Di luoi	Glie/A luoi	Ciu/Luoi	Ci/Ce/Con Luoi

Irish[edit | edit source]

The Irish language (Gaeilge) presents some challenges to creating a gender neutral way of speaking. Every noun is gendered in either masculine or feminine grammatical gender, with accompanied binary forms for adjective agreement, pronouns and prepositions.

Nouns[edit | edit source]

Nouns in Irish are categorized into masculine and feminine grammatical genders, which in turn dictate the way nouns behave with the definitive articles "an" and "na", initial consonant mutations and the formation of adjectives. Gendered nouns correspond to gendered pronouns as stand ins (ex. masculine, Sé, or feminine, Sí). Nouns do seem to possess standard endings for the most part, although there are some exceptions. Irish nouns have 4 grammatical cases: nominative/accusative, vocative, genitive and prepositional.

Masculine endings include the following

ending in a broad consonant
occupational nouns ending in -óir/oir, -éir/eir, -úir/uir
single syllable words ending in -eacht or -acht
end with the masculine diminutives -ín or -án
end with -ste
most loan words are masculine (including derivatives using -ach)

Feminine endings include:

ending in a slender consonant
multiple syllable words ending in -eacht, -acht, or íocht.
ending in -eog or -óg
ending in -chan
are place names ending in -lann
most countries, rivers and languages are feminine.

(it could be argued since -eacht and -acht occur as both feminine and masculine nouns that there is some gender ambiguity/neutralized gender, and perhaps these could be neuter endings for nouns). For a traditionalist approach, it's important to recognize that grammatical gender is not the same as actual gender of the noun and can be categorical at times (ex. Paiste and Duine are both behave grammatically as masculine nouns but do not strictly mean a "male child" or "male person" and are basically neutral concepts).

Pronouns[edit | edit source]

Pronouns in standard Irish Gaelic are as follows:

Sé - meaning he in English, is a masculine pronoun.
Sí - meaning she in English, is a feminine pronoun.
Siad - meaning they in English, is neutral but a plural pronoun

Native speakers and new speakers alike have been thinking up helpful gender neutral alternatives. Some of these gender neutral pronouns include:

Siad - though not commonly used, some people have used this in place of binary pronouns, although some a critical of using it this way because they worry it will confuse people, because of Siad being used as a plural pronoun.
Siú - suggested from some learners in the duolingo community, it bears resemblance to Sé and Sí but stands alone as a gender neutral alternative. Not regularly used. Also bears similarity to siùd, meaning "those"
Duí - non-standard, used in place of Sí and Sé, it derives from the word duine which translates to person. Bear in mind that the grammatical gender of duine itself is grammatically masculine in gender.
Cí - non-standard, nonbinary pronoun inspired from Gaulish "Chí"
Són - Old Irish pronoun meaning "This" (It's modern variant, seo, means the same)
Intí - Old Irish pronoun meaning one/he/she
S` - A possibly ambiguous way to use the simple Slender S sound "S" but shortened without the masc or femme endings. Tá S` go maith
Sin - this has been in use by some native speakers. it's literal meaning is "that". Alternative ways of spelling Sin could include Sinh, S'n, S-n or 'Sinhe'. The "Nh" is a borrowed ending from old gaelic, pronounced as a regular N or N followed by an H. Sinh, S'n and S-n would all be pronounced as Sin In some dialects of Irish and in Scottish Gaelic, Sinn/Sinne is used as a pronoun meaning We in english.
Ea - a gender-neutral pronoun regularly used in modern Irish, but usually restricted to certain grammatical circumstances.
Amhain - The adjectival form meaning "one" (used for numbers when counting people). The use for this, is unknown.
Amh - Neo pronoun acting as a shortened version of Amhain, meaning "one person". Not used in contemporary gaelic.

Irish has three grammatical forms for personal pronouns: conjunctive form, disjunctive form and emphatic form.

Conjunctive form

The conjunctive form is used when the subject follows the verb. Standard Irish sentence structure is Verb Subject Object or VSO. Forms corresponding to the non-standard pronouns above include Siú,Duí and Cí.

Example: Ritheann siú or "they (sg.) run" Ritheann sin or "they (sg.) run" Ritheann cí or "they (sg.) run" Ritheann sea or "they (sg.) run"

Disjunctive form

The disjunctive form is used when the pronoun isn't the subject or the subject pronoun doesn't follow the verb. Forms corresponding to the non-standard pronouns above include Iú,Dhuí and Chí

Examples: Is dalta sin or "they are a student" Is duine dhuí or "they are a person" Is garda chí or "they are a police officer" Buailim mé iú or "I hit them" Buailim mé dhuí or "I hit them" Buailim mé chí or "I hit them" Is muinteoir ea or "They sg. are a teacher"

Emphatic form

Emphatic form is used to emphasize pronouns and is similar to the English use of italics to give words a bit more weight. Conjunctive and Disjunctive forms exist within the Emphatic form. Forms for the nonstandard pronouns include Suisa,Duísean and Císa (emphatic conjunctive) and Uisa, Dhuísean and Chísa (emphatic disjunctive).

Examples: Is dhuísean! or "It's them'" Is suisa! or "It's them" Is císa! or "It's them" Is seasa or

Prepositional pronouns

In addition to these other forms of pronouns, The irish language has "prepositional pronouns", which create specific forms of gender pronouns depending on the type of preposition. Bear in mind the table below contains only the neutral singular versions of these pronouns and these are all non-standard forms inspired by ones present within Irish currently. To form these, take the frontal stem of the 3rd person plural preposition and add the endings -ín, -ar, -na, -á, -us or -usa.

ag "at"	de "off"	le "with"	roimh "before"	ar "on"	do "for/to"	ó "from"	thar "over"	as "out of"	faoi "under"	trí "through"	idir "between"	chuig "toward"	i "in"	um "around"	fara "along/ with"
acá	diobhin	leosa	romhin	orsin	daoise	uaithu	thairu	asin	fús	tría	---	chús	ionseá	umúl	feirsa

Another option if using "sin" as a pronoun could be to use the preposition stem in combination with "sin" or "that". Ex. Aige "at him" or Aici "at her" would be replaced with Ag Sin (literally at that). Some non-binary speakers of Irish may also look to using Siad as a pronoun, which would correspond with Siad's additional prepositional forms.

Family terms[edit | edit source]

There are words that would be categorized in binary genders but could be used as neutral sounding words.

Páiste means child, (plural páistí), grammatically masculine.
Tuismitheoir means parent (plural tuismitheoirí), grammatically masculine.
Mo ghra or Gra can be used in a neutral sense to say "my love" or "love" when referring to a romantic partner.

Japanese[edit | edit source]

Japanese does not have grammatical gendered structures (i.e. conjugations or noun endings), but there are many gendered aspects of the language. Specific information, such as the gender of a person being referred to, is often implied through other context in the conversation. There are however, specific sets of vocabulary that are traditionally assigned to narrow demographics. For example, the first-person singular pronoun (i.e. "I" or "me") is different depending on the gender of the speaker: 僕 ("boku") is generally used by young men, while women tend to use あたし ("atashi"). There is also a neutral pronoun, 私 ("watashi"), although it's more formal.

Korean[edit | edit source]

Latin[edit | edit source]

Latin is essentially a historical language, but it is still used by a small but vibrant community worldwide. It starts to have some LGBT terminology, like "homosexualitas"/"homophylophilia" (homosexuality), "propensio sexualis" (sexual orientation), "intersexualitas" (intersexuality), "identitas generis" (gender identity) etc., but modern neologisms remain a tricky issue in the language. Also, Latin traditionally makes extensive use of generic masculine, which is thus difficult to avoid. If one is ready to use terms that didn't exist in the classical language (or had a different meaning then), but have nevertheless been in use for centuries (e.g. "persona", "individuum"), it is possible to use a mix of terms of different grammatical genders and add other words as appositions aligned in gender in order to convey gender neutrality, e.g. "homo filius", "persona filia" and "individuum filium" in order to express "child" (in the sense of offspring). For "enby", "nebinium" has been proposed.^[4]

Norwegian[edit | edit source]

Norwegian is a language with three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter, but they have nothing at all to do with real gender. For example, "kvinne", which means "woman", "kusine", which means a female cousin, "jente", which means "girl", and "dronning", which means "queen", are all or can be masculine nouns. There are also a few odd words, such as romkamerat, an inclusive word meaning room-mate. The word "kamerat" means male friend.

Family terms[edit | edit source]

Ektefelle: An inclusive word for a spouse.
Barn: An inclusive word for a child.
Søskenbarn: An inclusive word for a cousin.
Forelder: A word for a parent.

Pronouns[edit | edit source]

Seg: An extremely common, standard word for "themself" or "themselves".
Si: The feminine possessive form of 'seg'. It indicates belonging to the subject, but not the gender/lack of gender of the subject (or even the object).
Sin: The masculine possessive form of 'seg'. Its function is similar to the function described above.
Sitt: The neuter possessive form of 'seg'. Its function is similar to the function described above.

Hen: An inclusive third-person pronoun. The Norwegian Language Council (Språkrådet) is unfavourable towards use of "hen" as a general gender-neutral pronoun in formal texts (while open to change should actual language use evolve), but advises to use it when requested by a nonbinary person. At that occasion, the Språkrådet uses "hen" also as object form and "hens" as genitive form.^[5]
Hin: Another gender-neutral pronoun.^[6]

Den or Det: Pronouns that usually refer to objects (akin to English "it"), however some people choose to use these pronouns.^[6]

Other Types of Relationships[edit | edit source]

Venn: A standard word for "friend". "Kamerat" and "venninne", the other words, are binary.
Kjæreste: A person who is loved by another person, but not married to them.

Polish[edit | edit source]

There is more information about this topic here: Gender neutral language in Polish

Polish is a very gendered language. Some Polish nonbinary people create solutions such as gender-neutral verb endings, for example "chciałxm"/"chciałom"/"chciałx" instead of "chciałbym" (masculine) or "chciałabym" (feminine).^[7]^[8] In the novel Perfect Imperfection, author Jacek Dukaj used -um verb endings (e.g. "zobaczyłum" instead of the masculine "zobaczyłem" or feminine "zobaczyłam").^[9] These have since become known as Dukaisms.^[10]

Another gender-neutral way of speaking or writing Polish is rewording phrases to use a non-gendered conjugation of a verb. For example, instead of saying "I saw" in the masculine form "zobaczyłem" or feminine form "zobaczyłam", one could say "Udało mi się zobaczyć" (I was able to see).^[11]

For written Polish, it is possible to combine the masculine and feminine forms of a noun, with a space in between the endings to acknowledge other genders. For example instead of the masculine "aktorzy" or the feminine "aktorki", one could write "aktorki_rzy".^[12]

Portuguese[edit | edit source]

Gender neutral language in Portuguese contains more information on this topic.

Pronous[edit | edit source]

The most common neutral pronouns are elu and ile, though there are many others.

*Ela* and *ele* compared to some Portuguese neopronouns:^[13]^[14]^[15]
ela/e(s)	ael(s)	el(s)	el@(s)*	elu(s)	elx(s)*	ile(s)	ilu(s)
dela/e(s)	dael(s)	del(s)	del@(s)	delu(s)	delx(s)	dile(s)	dilu(s)
nela/e(s)	nael(s)	nel(s)	nel@(s)	nelu(s)	nelx(s)	nile(s)	nilu(s)
aquela/e(s)	aquael(s)	aquel(s)	aquel@(s)	aquelu(s)	aquelx(s)	aquile(s)	aquilu(s)
daquela/e(s)	daquael(s)	daquel(s)	daquel@(s)	daquelu(s)	daquelx(s)	daquile(s)	daquilu(s)
naquela/e(s)	naquael(s)	naquel(s)	naquel@(s)	naquelu(s)	naquelx(s)	naquile(s)	naquilu(s)
àquela/e(s)	àquael(s)	àquel(s)	àquel@(s)	àquelu(s)	àquelx(s)	àquile(s)	àquilu(s)

*The use of these pronouns is not encouraged.

Family Terms[edit | edit source]

Mai - mom/dad

Irmane - brother/sister

Russian[edit | edit source]

Unlike English, Russian has three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. While neuter allows some nonbinary people adjectives to use, this gender is not ideal for nonbinary people for grammatical reasons. The first is that most neuter nouns decline like masculine nouns. The second is that neuter animate nouns do not change in the accusative case (though there are rare neuter animate nouns that change in the accusative plural; see "лицо" in Wiktionary), while both masculine and feminine nouns do. This implies that people using neuter words are not human.

Titles[edit | edit source]

госпожне	Plural is "госпожня". Grammatical gender is neutral, and while in the singular it takes endings similar to the masculine.

Family Terms[edit | edit source]

-евче and -овче	In Russian, rather than middle names, children have patronyms, or their father's first name with -евич/-ович (for boys) or -евна/-овна (for girls) added to the end. -евче and -овче are genderqueer endings for one's patronym. Alternatives include -евчен/-овчен (agender), -еви/-ови (multigender) and more.

Spanish[edit | edit source]

Parents of Gays float at the 2009 Marcha Gay in Mexico City. The banner shows the @ symbol substituted for the masculine "o" or feminine "a" to make it gender neutral.

There is more information about this topic here: Gender neutral language in Spanish

As a language in the Romance family, Spanish has two grammatical genders, masculine and feminine, which are part of every adjective, noun, and article. This makes it nearly impossible to speak in a completely gender-neutral in standard Spanish. Feminists, LGBT people, and other activists today are creating methods to speak Spanish in a gender-neutral way when needed. Because the ending -o is masculine, and -a is feminine, it's now common for people to substitute these with a different letter or symbol to create a neutral version. The most used and more accepted is using -e. Some common examples of this are "L@s Latin@s,"^[16]^[17]^[18]^[19] "Lxs Latinxs,"^[16]^[19]^[18] "Les Latines,"^[20]^[18] and even "LⒶs LatinⒶs."^[21]

In Spanish the neutral word for mom/dad that would be equal to parent in English is xadre, the word madre being mom and the word padre being dad and the alternative to daddy/mommy that in Spanish would be papi/mami respectively is xami, xadi or xaxi.

All of this pronunciating the x as an s. This forms are not largely used.

For words that describe professions for example actor/actriz meaning actor/actress there are two alternatives. The first one works as any other adjective adding an 'e' to actor and the second one takes the ending of naturally gender neutral words like cantante meaning singer, taking the 'ante' and adding it to the original word's root, in this case being actuante.

Swedish[edit | edit source]

A symbol of Swedish female, male, and neutral pronouns.

Traditionally, the word den has been used as a gender neutral pronoun and remains widely used today. However, depending on the context, the word den can also mean it leaving it unsatisfactory as a gender neutral pronoun for many who do not wish to be seen as comparable to an inanimate object. Since the 1960s, the person pronoun hen has become increasingly popular and will, in 2015, be added for the first time to Svenska Akademiens Ordlista (the Swedish equivalent to France's Dictionnaire de l'Académie française). Its usage, however, remains somewhat contraversial and is vigorously opposed by some.

In 2024, the official Swedish gender-neutral pronoun is hen/hen/hens. The Swedish common-inanimate pronoun den/den/dens (equivalent to it/it/its) is also used for gender-neutral language and by some nonbinary people, as well as the non-standard anglicized practice of singular de/dem/deras (they/them/their). Some nonbinary people have also opted for neopronoun such as hin/hin/hins, which is in actuality an obsolete pronoun that means something alike “that one”, but is in modern times pretty much only used in the set phrase “hin håle” (the hard one, the devil).

Pronouns[edit | edit source]

Hen	Standard gender-neutral/third-gender personal pronoun
hen	Subject form
hen/henom	Object form is generaly just "hen", but some use "henom". It is very individual.
hens	Possessive form

Den	Gender-neutral/common-inanimate "it"
den	Subject/object form
dens/dess	Possessive form

De	Non-standard anglicized singular "they"
de	Subject form is sometimes written "dom"
dem	Object form is sometimes written "dom"
deras	Possessive form

Hin	Neopronoun/obsolete pronoun "hin"
hin	Subject/object form
hins	Possessive form

Thai[edit | edit source]

Welsh[edit | edit source]

External links[edit | edit source]

Gender-neutral/Queer Titles. A long, continually updated list of gender-neutral or genderqueer words for family members and relationships in English.
Language learning beyond the gender binary, by linguist Timothy McKeon, on how to be gender-neutral or gender-variant in many different languages.
Being Non-Binary in a Language Without Gendered Pronouns – Estonian

References[edit | edit source]

↑ Berger, Miriam (15 December 2019). "A guide to how gender-neutral language is developing around the world". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 2 October 2020.
↑ Dictionary.com. "English used to have gendered nouns?! Yes!" May 16, 2012. Dictionary.com (blog). http://blog.dictionary.com/oldenglishgender/ Archived on 17 July 2023
↑ Knisely, Kris A. Le français non-binaire: Linguistic forms used by non-binary speakers of French. Foreign Language Annals. 2020;53:850–876.https://doi.org/10.1111/flan.12500
↑ See here. Archived on 17 July 2023
↑ http://www.sprakradet.no/Vi-og-vart/Publikasjoner/Spraaknytt/spraknytt-20162/spraknytt-12016/han-ho-eller-hen/ Archived on 17 July 2023
↑ ^6.0 ^6.1 "Kjønnsportal > Pronomen". FRI Oslo og Viken (in Norwegian Bokmål). Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
↑ "hi how to use they them in poland. próbuję ale im failing miserably". Archived from the original on 17 June 2020.
↑ "Czemu ludzie są Twoim zdaniem dyskryminowani przez swoją orientację seksualną?". Archived from the original on 17 June 2020.
↑ Winky, Kinky. "TransGrysy wyjaśniają: co robić, a czego nie robić w kontaktach z osobami transpłciowymi?" [TransGrysy explains: what to do and what not to do when dealing with transgender people?]. kinkywinky.pl (in Polish). Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
↑ "An overview of Polish nonbinary pronouns". Zaimki.pl. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
↑ niski_grabieżca (12 June 2019). "Osoby niebinarne - jakiej są płci?". transseksualizm.blogspot.com (in Polish). Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
↑ Tłumaczeń, Biuro (11 December 2015). "Gender. Płeć w języku. Feminizm w języku polskim" [Gender. Gender in language. Feminism in Polish language]. Ekspresowe tłumaczenia (in Polish). Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
↑ Lobo, Cari; Gaigaia, V. "Linguagem não-binária ou neutra" [Non-binary or neutral language]. wikia (in Portuguese). Revised by Kumiho Lim. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
↑ "Pronome neutro de terceira pessoa" [Neutral third person pronoun]. Wikipedia (in Portuguese). Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
↑ "Elementos de conjuntos de linguagem" [Elements of sets of language]. orientando (in Portuguese). Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
↑ ^16.0 ^16.1 Sikian. Reddit. Forum comment. 2015. https://www.reddit.com/r/genderqueer/comments/2ymn25/gender_in_language_to_all_you_nonbinary_redditors/cpdjdhi Archived on 17 July 2023
↑ Sophia Gubb. "Construyendo Un Género Neutro En Español – Para Una Lengua Feminista, Igualitaria E Inclusiva." February 10, 2013. Sophia Gubb's Blog. Personal blog entry. http://www.sophiagubb.com/construyendo-un-genero-neutro-en-espanol-para-una-lengua-feminista-igualitaria-e-inclusiva/ Archived on 17 July 2023
↑ ^18.0 ^18.1 ^18.2 http://www.spanishforsocialchange.com/2015/05/living-as-non-binary-or-gender-neutral.html Archived on 17 July 2023
↑ ^19.0 ^19.1 http://genderfork.com/2013/question-gender-neutral-honorifics-in-spanish/ Archived on 17 July 2023
↑ Schmidt, Samantha (5 December 2019). "A Language for All". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
↑ Phoenix Tawnyflower. "Nonbinary Spanish." May 24, 2014. Reflections of a Queer Artist (personal blog). http://phoenixtawnyflower.blogspot.com/2014/05/nonbinary-spanish.html Archived on 17 July 2023

[Berger-1] Berger, Miriam (15 December 2019). "A guide to how gender-neutral language is developing around the world". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 2 October 2020.

[2] Dictionary.com. "English used to have gendered nouns?! Yes!" May 16, 2012. Dictionary.com (blog). http://blog.dictionary.com/oldenglishgender/ Archived on 17 July 2023

[3] Knisely, Kris A. Le français non-binaire: Linguistic forms used by non-binary speakers of French. Foreign Language Annals. 2020;53:850–876.https://doi.org/10.1111/flan.12500

[4] See here. Archived on 17 July 2023

[5] ttp://www.sprakradet.no/Vi-og-vart/Publikasjoner/Spraaknytt/spraknytt-20162/spraknytt-12016/han-ho-eller-hen/ Archived on 17 July 2023

[frio_Kjøn-6] 6.0 ^6.1 "Kjønnsportal > Pronomen". FRI Oslo og Viken (in Norwegian Bokmål). Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 8 March 2021.

[7] "hi how to use they them in poland. próbuję ale im failing miserably". Archived from the original on 17 June 2020.

[8] "Czemu ludzie są Twoim zdaniem dyskryminowani przez swoją orientację seksualną?". Archived from the original on 17 June 2020.

[TransGrysy-9] Winky, Kinky. "TransGrysy wyjaśniają: co robić, a czego nie robić w kontaktach z osobami transpłciowymi?" [TransGrysy explains: what to do and what not to do when dealing with transgender people?]. kinkywinky.pl (in Polish). Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 1 October 2020.

[zaimkipl-10] "An overview of Polish nonbinary pronouns". Zaimki.pl. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 25 November 2020.

[grabieżca-11] ski_grabieżca (12 June 2019). "Osoby niebinarne - jakiej są płci?". transseksualizm.blogspot.com (in Polish). Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 1 October 2020.

[123t_Gend-12] Tłumaczeń, Biuro (11 December 2015). "Gender. Płeć w języku. Feminizm w języku polskim" [Gender. Gender in language. Feminism in Polish language]. Ekspresowe tłumaczenia (in Polish). Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 1 October 2020.

[13] Lobo, Cari; Gaigaia, V. "Linguagem não-binária ou neutra" [Non-binary or neutral language]. wikia (in Portuguese). Revised by Kumiho Lim. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 20 June 2021.

[14] "Pronome neutro de terceira pessoa" [Neutral third person pronoun]. Wikipedia (in Portuguese). Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 21 June 2021.

[15] "Elementos de conjuntos de linguagem" [Elements of sets of language]. orientando (in Portuguese). Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 21 June 2021.

[sikian-16] 16.0 ^16.1 Sikian. Reddit. Forum comment. 2015. https://www.reddit.com/r/genderqueer/comments/2ymn25/gender_in_language_to_all_you_nonbinary_redditors/cpdjdhi Archived on 17 July 2023

[gubb-17] Sophia Gubb. "Construyendo Un Género Neutro En Español – Para Una Lengua Feminista, Igualitaria E Inclusiva." February 10, 2013. Sophia Gubb's Blog. Personal blog entry. http://www.sophiagubb.com/construyendo-un-genero-neutro-en-espanol-para-una-lengua-feminista-igualitaria-e-inclusiva/ Archived on 17 July 2023

[socialchange-18] 18.0 ^18.1 ^18.2 http://www.spanishforsocialchange.com/2015/05/living-as-non-binary-or-gender-neutral.html Archived on 17 July 2023

[genderfork-19] 19.0 ^19.1 http://genderfork.com/2013/question-gender-neutral-honorifics-in-spanish/ Archived on 17 July 2023

[Schmidt-20] Schmidt, Samantha (5 December 2019). "A Language for All". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 29 May 2020.

[tawny-21] Phoenix Tawnyflower. "Nonbinary Spanish." May 24, 2014. Reflections of a Queer Artist (personal blog). http://phoenixtawnyflower.blogspot.com/2014/05/nonbinary-spanish.html Archived on 17 July 2023

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