Gender neutral language in English: Difference between revisions

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'''Gender neutral language in English''' is easier than [[gender neutral language]] (also called gender inclusive language) in many other languages, because its grammatical gender is less pervasive than in~~, say, German~~ or ~~French~~. See the main article on [[gender neutral language]] for general reasons to use neutral language, common problems in using it, and its use for [[nonbinary]] people.

'''Gender neutral language in English''' is much easier than [[gender neutral language]] (also called gender inclusive language) in many other languages, because its grammatical gender is less pervasive than in other languages where adjectives and verbs have masculine or feminine forms. See the main article on [[gender neutral language]] for general reasons to use neutral language, common problems in using it, and its use for [[nonbinary]] people.

==History==

Although English has grammatical gender, it's only a vestige of what it once had. Old English once had grammatical gender for inanimate objects, but this practice started to disappear in the 700s, and vanished in the 1200s. The population of England at that time spoke several languages, and the same inanimate objects had different genders in those different languages. They may have stopped using that part entirely just to make it simpler. English stopped using grammatical gender for inanimate objects, but it still uses grammatical gender for people and personal pronouns.<ref>Dictionary.com. "English used to have gendered nouns?! Yes!" May 16, 2012. ''Dictionary.com'' (blog). [http://blog.dictionary.com/oldenglishgender/ http://blog.dictionary.com/oldenglishgender/]</ref> There is enough to make a challenge for nonbinary people who don't want gendered language to be used for them.

Although English has grammatical gender, it's only a vestige of what it once had. Old English once had grammatical gender for inanimate objects, but this practice started to disappear in the 700s, and vanished in the 1200s. The population of England at that time spoke several languages, and the same inanimate objects had different genders in those different languages. They may have stopped using that part entirely just to make it simpler. English stopped using grammatical gender for inanimate objects, but it still uses grammatical gender for people and personal pronouns.<ref>Dictionary.com. "English used to have gendered nouns?! Yes!" May 16, 2012. ''Dictionary.com'' (blog). [http://blog.dictionary.com/oldenglishgender/ http://blog.dictionary.com/oldenglishgender/] [https://web.archive.org/web/20220322012738/http://blog.dictionary.com/oldenglishgender/ Archived] on 17 July 2023</ref> There is enough to make a challenge for nonbinary people who don't want gendered language to be used for them.

Gender-neutral language has become common in English today largely thanks to the pioneering work by feminists Casey Miller and Kate Swift. During the 1970s, they began the work of encouraging inclusive language, as an alternative to sexist language that excludes or dehumanizes women. Miller and Swift wrote a manual on gender-neutral language, ''The Handbook of Nonsexist Writing'' (1980). Miller and Swift also proposed a set of gender-neutral pronouns, [[English neutral pronouns#Tey|tey]], although they later favored [[English neutral pronouns#They|singular they]], or [[English neutral pronouns#He or she|he or she]].<ref>Elizabeth Isele, "Casey Miller and Kate Swift: Women who dared to disturb the lexicon." http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/old-WILLA/fall94/h2-isele.html </ref> There are several books on gender-neutral English, such as Rosalie Maggio's book ''The Nonsexist Word Finder: A Dictionary of Gender-Free Usage'' (1989).

Gender-neutral language has become common in English today largely thanks to the pioneering work by feminists Casey Miller and Kate Swift. During the 1970s, they began the work of encouraging inclusive language, as an alternative to sexist language that excludes or dehumanizes women. Miller and Swift wrote a manual on gender-neutral language, ''The Handbook of Nonsexist Writing'' (1980). Miller and Swift also proposed a set of gender-neutral pronouns, [[English neutral pronouns#Tey|tey]], although they later favored [[English neutral pronouns#They|singular they]], or [[English neutral pronouns#He or she|he or she]].<ref>Elizabeth Isele, "Casey Miller and Kate Swift: Women who dared to disturb the lexicon." http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/old-WILLA/fall94/h2-isele.html [https://web.archive.org/web/20230528025157/https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/old-WILLA/fall94/h2-isele.html Archived] on 17 July 2023</ref> There are several books on gender-neutral English, such as Rosalie Maggio's book ''The Nonsexist Word Finder: A Dictionary of Gender-Free Usage'' (1989).

==Words and alternatives==

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===Titles===

''~~See~~ main article at [[Gender neutral titles]].''

''For gender-neutral replacements of titles like Ms and Mr, see main article at [[Gender neutral titles]].''

==== Honorifics ====

===== Ma'am/Sir =====

Standard English doesn't have a gender neutral word that's used in the same way as Ma'am and Sir — a formal form of address used in some places to show respect, and commonly required for use by customer service professionals. People have created some words to fill this lexical gap, but they remain uncommon words. People have also suggested using other words in place of Ma'am and Sir, but they tend to fail the tests of formality and simplicity that customer service professionals (and their managers) apply to such usage. Many prefer no titles/no honorifics. {{Common word|word1=Friend|meaning1=Neutral, informal.|ref1=|word2=Mx.|meaning2=Neutral, used similar to Mr. Mrs. or Ms. Pronounced [mɪks] or [məks].}}

* "No titles/honorifics"

* "Surname"/'Initial.' 'Surname'; Just the surname.

* 'Initial.' "Surname"; First name's initial followed bu the surname.

* Friend; neutral, very informal.

* Mx.; neutral, used similar to Mr. Mrs. or Ms. Pronounced [mɪks] or [məks].

* Citizen; neutral.

*Comrade; neutral, has Socialist, Communist and/or Anarchist connotations.

* Laddam; queer, a mix of Lad and Madam.

* M.; Neutral abbreviation for miss/ms./mrs./mr./mister/ma'am/mx.

* Mamsir/Mamser; a mix of ma'am and sir that is commonly used in Philippine English as a respectful term of address for adults regardless of gender identity or presentation.<ref>[[wikt:mamsir#English|mamsir]]. ''Wiktionary, The Free Dictionary.'' 16 May 2024. Retrieved 20 June 2024.</ref>

* Mezz; pronounced [mɛz].<ref name="MoserDevereux2016">{{cite journal|last1=Moser|first1=Charles|last2=Devereux|first2=Maura|title=Gender neutral pronouns: A modest proposal|journal=International Journal of Transgenderism|volume=20|issue=2-3|year=2016|pages=331–332|issn=1553-2739|doi=10.1080/15532739.2016.1217446}}</ref>

* Mir; queer, a mix of Sir and Madam.

* Mirdam; queer, a mix of Sir and Madam, although it still sounds similar to Madam.

* Mistdam; queer, a mix of Mister and Madam.

*Mistrum: queer; a neutral alternative to Mister and Mistress.

*Pe'n; neutral, short for "person", pronounced "pen"

* Sa'am; a mix of sir and ma'am. Sounds like a masculine leaning name.

* Sir; neutral, Sir is used neutrally in the military, although this doesn’t work as well outside of that.

* Sir’ram; queer, a mix of Sir and Ma’am.

* Shazam; neutral, coined by a highschool student wishing to address a nonbinary teacher with a formal term of respect.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/groups/1601168520209978/|title=Facebook Groups|website=www.facebook.com|language=en|access-date=2020-11-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111230125/https://www.facebook.com/groups/1601168520209978/|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref>

*Tiz; neutral, short for citizen.

* Zam; neutral, based on shazam, coined by Arin Wolfe.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/groups/1601168520209978/|title=Facebook Groups|website=www.facebook.com|language=en|access-date=2020-11-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111230125/https://www.facebook.com/groups/1601168520209978/|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref>

*Ser; neutral, based on Final Fantasy XIV's usage for both male and female knights of Ishgard.

===Common nouns===

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{|class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align: center;"

! Type of common noun

! Gender neutral

! Feminine

! Masculine

! ~~Gender inclusive (could be masculine or feminine)~~

! Nonbinary

~~! Specifically nonbinary~~

|-

| Young person

| Child, kid, baby, infant, teen, teenager, tween, young person, youth

| Girl, maiden

| Boy, ~~youth~~

| Boy, lad

~~| Child, kid, infant, teen, tween, young person~~

| Enby

|-

| Adult person

~~| Woman, lady~~

~~| Man, gentleman~~

| Adult, gentlebeing, gentleperson, grownup

| Woman, gal, lady

| Man, guy, gentleman

| Enby, enban

|-

| Person of any age

| Being, human, human being, individual, one, person, somebody, someone

| Female

| Male

~~| Being, puman, human being, one, person, somebody, someone~~

| Enby

|-

|Descriptive

|Human, humane

|Feminine, womanly, girly, female, gynous

|Masculine, manly, boyish, male, androus

|Non-binary, inter, androgynous, neutral

|}

(Note that using "male" and "female" as nouns for people, e.g. "my dentist is a male", is seen as dehumanising in English, and in particular "female" as a noun is considered sexist.)

(Note 2: Some nonbinary people dislike "enby" and feel it is infantilizing.<ref>https://nonbinarywiki.tumblr.com/post/621003149724041217/on-enby-and-age [https://web.archive.org/web/20201030060232/https://nonbinarywiki.tumblr.com/post/621003149724041217/on-enby-and-age Archived] on 17 July 2023</ref>)

===Family and relationship words===

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Parents as in the formal words mother or father, or the informal mama or dada. Gender-neutral and gender-inclusive words for a parent of any gender, or non-standard specifically nonbinary, [[queer]], or [[genderqueer]] words.

{{common word|word1 = Parent|meaning1 = Neutral, formal|ref1=<ref name="titles queeries"></~~ref~~>}}

{{common word|word1 = Parent|meaning1 = Neutral, formal|ref1=<ref name="titles queeries" />}}

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-'''Gender neutral language in English''' is easier than [[gender neutral language]] (also called gender inclusive language) in many other languages, because its grammatical gender is less pervasive than in, say, German or French. See the main article on [[gender neutral language]] for general reasons to use neutral language, common problems in using it, and its use for [[nonbinary]] people.
+{{Template:Gender neutral language}}
+'''Gender neutral language in English''' is much easier than [[gender neutral language]] (also called gender inclusive language) in many other languages, because its grammatical gender is less pervasive than in other languages where adjectives and verbs have masculine or feminine forms. See the main article on [[gender neutral language]] for general reasons to use neutral language, common problems in using it, and its use for [[nonbinary]] people.
 ==History==
-Although English has grammatical gender, it's only a vestige of what it once had. Old English once had grammatical gender for inanimate objects, but this practice started to disappear in the 700s, and vanished in the 1200s. The population of England at that time spoke several languages, and the same inanimate objects had different genders in those different languages. They may have stopped using that part entirely just to make it simpler. English stopped using grammatical gender for inanimate objects, but it still uses grammatical gender for people and personal pronouns.<ref>Dictionary.com. "English used to have gendered nouns?! Yes!" May 16, 2012. ''Dictionary.com'' (blog). [http://blog.dictionary.com/oldenglishgender/ http://blog.dictionary.com/oldenglishgender/]</ref> There is enough to make a challenge for nonbinary people who don't want gendered language to be used for them.
+Although English has grammatical gender, it's only a vestige of what it once had. Old English once had grammatical gender for inanimate objects, but this practice started to disappear in the 700s, and vanished in the 1200s. The population of England at that time spoke several languages, and the same inanimate objects had different genders in those different languages. They may have stopped using that part entirely just to make it simpler. English stopped using grammatical gender for inanimate objects, but it still uses grammatical gender for people and personal pronouns.<ref>Dictionary.com. "English used to have gendered nouns?! Yes!" May 16, 2012. ''Dictionary.com'' (blog). [http://blog.dictionary.com/oldenglishgender/ http://blog.dictionary.com/oldenglishgender/] [https://web.archive.org/web/20220322012738/http://blog.dictionary.com/oldenglishgender/ Archived] on 17 July 2023</ref> There is enough to make a challenge for nonbinary people who don't want gendered language to be used for them.
-Gender-neutral language has become common in English today largely thanks to the pioneering work by feminists Casey Miller and Kate Swift. During the 1970s, they began the work of encouraging inclusive language, as an alternative to sexist language that excludes or dehumanizes women. Miller and Swift wrote a manual on gender-neutral language, ''The Handbook of Nonsexist Writing'' (1980). Miller and Swift also proposed a set of gender-neutral pronouns, [[English neutral pronouns#Tey|tey]], although they later favored [[English neutral pronouns#They|singular they]], or [[English neutral pronouns#He or she|he or she]].<ref>Elizabeth Isele, "Casey Miller and Kate Swift: Women who dared to disturb the lexicon." http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/old-WILLA/fall94/h2-isele.html </ref> There are several books on gender-neutral English, such as Rosalie Maggio's book ''The Nonsexist Word Finder: A Dictionary of Gender-Free Usage'' (1989).
+Gender-neutral language has become common in English today largely thanks to the pioneering work by feminists Casey Miller and Kate Swift. During the 1970s, they began the work of encouraging inclusive language, as an alternative to sexist language that excludes or dehumanizes women. Miller and Swift wrote a manual on gender-neutral language, ''The Handbook of Nonsexist Writing'' (1980). Miller and Swift also proposed a set of gender-neutral pronouns, [[English neutral pronouns#Tey|tey]], although they later favored [[English neutral pronouns#They|singular they]], or [[English neutral pronouns#He or she|he or she]].<ref>Elizabeth Isele, "Casey Miller and Kate Swift: Women who dared to disturb the lexicon." http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/old-WILLA/fall94/h2-isele.html  [https://web.archive.org/web/20230528025157/https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/old-WILLA/fall94/h2-isele.html Archived] on 17 July 2023</ref> There are several books on gender-neutral English, such as Rosalie Maggio's book ''The Nonsexist Word Finder: A Dictionary of Gender-Free Usage'' (1989).
 ==Words and alternatives==
@@ Line 17: / Line 18: @@
 ===Titles===
-''See main article at [[Gender neutral titles]].''
+''For gender-neutral replacements of titles like Ms and Mr, see main article at [[Gender neutral titles]].''
+==== Honorifics ====
+===== Ma'am/Sir =====
+Standard English doesn't have a gender neutral word that's used in the same way as Ma'am and Sir — a formal form of address used in some places to show respect, and commonly required for use by customer service professionals. People have created some words to fill this lexical gap, but they remain uncommon words. People have also suggested using other words in place of Ma'am and Sir, but they tend to fail the tests of formality and simplicity that customer service professionals (and their managers) apply to such usage. Many prefer no titles/no honorifics.  {{Common word|word1=Friend|meaning1=Neutral, informal.|ref1=|word2=Mx.|meaning2=Neutral, used similar to Mr. Mrs. or Ms. Pronounced [mɪks] or [məks].}}
+* "No titles/honorifics"
+* "Surname"/'Initial.' 'Surname'; Just the surname.
+* 'Initial.' "Surname"; First name's initial followed bu the surname.
+* Friend; neutral, very informal.
+* Mx.; neutral, used similar to Mr. Mrs. or Ms. Pronounced [mɪks] or [məks].
+* Citizen; neutral.
+*Comrade; neutral, has Socialist, Communist and/or Anarchist connotations.
+* Laddam; queer, a mix of Lad and Madam.
+* M.; Neutral abbreviation for miss/ms./mrs./mr./mister/ma'am/mx.
+* Mamsir/Mamser; a mix of ma'am and sir that is commonly used in Philippine English as a respectful term of address for adults regardless of gender identity or presentation.<ref>[[wikt:mamsir#English|mamsir]]. ''Wiktionary, The Free Dictionary.'' 16 May 2024. Retrieved 20 June 2024.</ref>
+* Mezz; pronounced [mɛz].<ref name="MoserDevereux2016">{{cite journal|last1=Moser|first1=Charles|last2=Devereux|first2=Maura|title=Gender neutral pronouns: A modest proposal|journal=International Journal of Transgenderism|volume=20|issue=2-3|year=2016|pages=331–332|issn=1553-2739|doi=10.1080/15532739.2016.1217446}}</ref>
+* Mir; queer, a mix of Sir and Madam.
+* Mirdam; queer, a mix of Sir and Madam, although it still sounds similar to Madam.
+* Mistdam; queer, a mix of Mister and Madam.
+*Mistrum: queer; a neutral alternative to Mister and Mistress.
+*Pe'n; neutral, short for "person", pronounced "pen"
+* Sa'am; a mix of sir and ma'am. Sounds like a masculine leaning name.
+* Sir; neutral, Sir is used neutrally in the military, although this doesn’t work as well outside of that.
+* Sir’ram; queer, a mix of Sir and Ma’am.
+* Shazam; neutral, coined by a highschool student wishing to address a nonbinary teacher with a formal term of respect.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/groups/1601168520209978/|title=Facebook Groups|website=www.facebook.com|language=en|access-date=2020-11-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111230125/https://www.facebook.com/groups/1601168520209978/|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref>
+*Tiz; neutral, short for citizen.
+* Zam; neutral, based on shazam, coined by Arin Wolfe.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/groups/1601168520209978/|title=Facebook Groups|website=www.facebook.com|language=en|access-date=2020-11-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111230125/https://www.facebook.com/groups/1601168520209978/|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref>
+*Ser; neutral, based on Final Fantasy XIV's usage for both male and female knights of Ishgard.
 ===Common nouns===
@@ Line 23: / Line 54: @@
 {|class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align: center;"
 ! Type of common noun
+! Gender neutral
 ! Feminine
 ! Masculine
-! Gender inclusive (could be masculine or feminine)
+! Nonbinary
-! Specifically nonbinary
 |-
 | Young person
+| Child, kid, baby, infant, teen, teenager, tween, young person, youth
 | Girl, maiden
-| Boy, youth
+| Boy, lad
-| Child, kid, infant, teen, tween, young person
 | Enby
 |-
 | Adult person
-| Woman, lady
-| Man, gentleman
 | Adult, gentlebeing, gentleperson, grownup
+| Woman, gal, lady
+| Man, guy, gentleman
 | Enby, enban
 |-
 | Person of any age
+| Being, human, human being, individual, one, person, somebody, someone
 | Female
 | Male
-| Being, puman, human being, one, person, somebody, someone
 | Enby
+|-
+|Descriptive
+|Human, humane
+|Feminine, womanly, girly, female, gynous
+|Masculine, manly, boyish, male, androus
+|Non-binary, inter, androgynous, neutral
 |}
+(Note that using "male" and "female" as nouns for people, e.g. "my dentist is a male", is seen as dehumanising in English, and in particular "female" as a noun is considered sexist.)
+(Note 2: Some nonbinary people dislike "enby" and feel it is infantilizing.<ref>https://nonbinarywiki.tumblr.com/post/621003149724041217/on-enby-and-age [https://web.archive.org/web/20201030060232/https://nonbinarywiki.tumblr.com/post/621003149724041217/on-enby-and-age Archived] on 17 July 2023</ref>)
 ===Family and relationship words===
@@ Line 55: / Line 94: @@
 Parents as in the formal words mother or father, or the informal mama or dada. Gender-neutral and gender-inclusive words for a parent of any gender, or non-standard specifically nonbinary, [[queer]], or [[genderqueer]] words.
-{{common word|word1 = Parent|meaning1 = Neutral, formal|ref1=<ref name="titles queeries"></ref>}}
+{{common word|word1 = Parent|meaning1 = Neutral, formal|ref1=<ref name="titles queeries" />}}