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Pronouns: Difference between revisions
→Chinese neutral pronouns: update with a font that renders the new characters
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*Conclusion: Request that people use these pronouns for you. | *Conclusion: Request that people use these pronouns for you. | ||
Based on the above, here is a [[template letters|sample letter]] of a fictional person announcing their pronoun change. You can use it as a template for writing your own. | Based on the above, here is a [[template letters|sample letter]] of a fictional person announcing their pronoun change. You can use it as a template for writing your own. | ||
<blockquote> | <blockquote> | ||
Dear Stuart, | |||
As you know, I have a nonbinary gender identity, meaning that I don't think of myself as a woman or a man. I'm transitioning to a gender expression that feels more like the real me. Since being called "he" or "she" doesn't feel right to me, I have decided to change my pronouns to singular they (they, them, their, theirs, themself). For an example of these pronouns in a couple sentences: "They are Morgan, that's them. They will read their book by themself". I like these singular gender-neutral pronouns the best because they were used by Shakespeare, Jane Austen, and other great writers. They have been a part of English for a long time. From now on, please call me by "they" pronouns, instead of "he" or "she". | |||
Thank you,<br/> | |||
Mx Morgan Doe | |||
</blockquote> | |||
You can also use the above sample letter as a template for writing an e-mail, just by leaving out the signature. Use it as a template for a blog post by leaving out the salutation. | You can also use the above sample letter as a template for writing an e-mail, just by leaving out the signature. Use it as a template for a blog post by leaving out the salutation. | ||
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'''tā/ta1''' is the standard pronoun for people, which when pronounced aloud is gender-neutral. Before the language was influenced by Europeans, "他" was the proper way of rendering "tā" (regardless of gender); with the radical "亻" (a variant of "人") meaning "person" and "也" meaning "other" (i.e. "another person, neither me nor you"). Under European influence, the character "她" was invented, to mean "she" ("女"=female + "也"=other). Therefore, "他" more and more acquired the gender-specific meaning "he", with the consequence that nowadays neither "他" nor "她" are perceived as gender-neutral. Another written form of tā is "它" meaning "it," but this can be derogatory, so only use it for a person with their permission. Similarly, tā 牠 is a pronoun "used for non-human animals", <ref name="rabbitglitter ML pronouns" /> and tā 祂 is usually used for gods. | '''tā/ta1''' is the standard pronoun for people, which when pronounced aloud is gender-neutral. Before the language was influenced by Europeans, "他" was the proper way of rendering "tā" (regardless of gender); with the radical "亻" (a variant of "人") meaning "person" and "也" meaning "other" (i.e. "another person, neither me nor you"). Under European influence, the character "她" was invented, to mean "she" ("女"=female + "也"=other). Therefore, "他" more and more acquired the gender-specific meaning "he", with the consequence that nowadays neither "他" nor "她" are perceived as gender-neutral. Another written form of tā is "它" meaning "it," but this can be derogatory, so only use it for a person with their permission. Similarly, tā 牠 is a pronoun "used for non-human animals", <ref name="rabbitglitter ML pronouns" /> and tā 祂 is usually used for gods. | ||
As the logical gender-neutral character is "他" ("亻" meaning "person"), one solution would be to use a character composed of "男"("male") and "也" to mean "he", which would make it evident that "他" used in the same text can only be meant in a gender-neutral way. However, as Unicode | As the logical gender-neutral character is "他" ("亻" meaning "person"), one solution would be to use a character composed of "男"("male") and "也" to mean "he", which would make it evident that "他" used in the same text can only be meant in a gender-neutral way. However, as Unicode has only provided "⿰男也" as a single character in 2025 (, at code point U+32C3C), this is currently only possible with the few fonts that have implemented it (such as [https://github.com/lxgw/LxgwWenKai-Lite/releases LxgwWenKai-Lite]) and in handwriting. | ||
Some people simply write "TA" with Latin letters ("TA是我的朋友。"). The same can be done in Bopomofo ("ㄊㄚ是我的朋友。"). | Some people simply write "TA" with Latin letters ("TA是我的朋友。"). The same can be done in Bopomofo ("ㄊㄚ是我的朋友。"). | ||
Others write "X也" for non-binary people, and Unicode has in 2025 allocated the compound character "" at code point U+323BF. Based on the use in Unicode documents, the compound seems to be "⿰㐅也", but other sources give "⿰乂也". Here again, only a few fonts, such as [https://github.com/lxgw/LxgwWenKai-Lite/releases LxgwWenKai-Lite], have already implemented this. | |||
Gender-neutral pronouns in Cantonese (廣東話) include: | Gender-neutral pronouns in Cantonese (廣東話) include: | ||
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<references />46. Manifesto Ile para uma comunicação radicalemnte inclusiva | <references />46. Manifesto Ile para uma comunicação radicalemnte inclusiva | ||
https://diversitybbox.com/pt/manifesto-ile-para-uma-comunicacao-radicalmente-inclusiva/ | https://web.archive.org/web/20210920071746/https://diversitybbox.com/pt/manifesto-ile-para-uma-comunicacao-radicalmente-inclusiva/ | ||
47. Guia Linguagem Inclusiva HBO e [DIVERSITY BBOX] | 47. Guia Linguagem Inclusiva HBO e [DIVERSITY BBOX] | ||