Gender neutral language in English: Difference between revisions
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* '''Horse rider/Equestrian.''' Standard gender neutral term for horseman or horsewoman. | * '''Horse rider/Equestrian.''' Standard gender neutral term for horseman or horsewoman. | ||
* '''Hotell assistant.''' Neutral alternative to bellgirl and bellboy. | * '''Hotell assistant.''' Neutral alternative to bellgirl and bellboy. | ||
* '''Imperial majesty.''' Neutral alternative to emperor and empress. | |||
*'''-ling.''' Gender neutral Old English suffix for someone involved in something. Can be used in place of "-man", "-person" or "-woman" as a suffix for occupation, such as "businessling".<ref>[https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/52135/3-facts-about-english%E2%80%99s-most-adorable-suffix-ling#:~:text=JUST%20A%20GENERAL%20NOUN%2DMAKER,fiction%20meaning%20came%20much%20later https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/52135/3-facts-about-english%E2%80%99s-most-adorable-suffix-ling] [https://web.archive.org/web/20230612053238/https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/52135/3-facts-about-english%E2%80%99s-most-adorable-suffix-ling Archived] on 17 July 2023</ref> | *'''-ling.''' Gender neutral Old English suffix for someone involved in something. Can be used in place of "-man", "-person" or "-woman" as a suffix for occupation, such as "businessling".<ref>[https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/52135/3-facts-about-english%E2%80%99s-most-adorable-suffix-ling#:~:text=JUST%20A%20GENERAL%20NOUN%2DMAKER,fiction%20meaning%20came%20much%20later https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/52135/3-facts-about-english%E2%80%99s-most-adorable-suffix-ling] [https://web.archive.org/web/20230612053238/https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/52135/3-facts-about-english%E2%80%99s-most-adorable-suffix-ling Archived] on 17 July 2023</ref> | ||
*'''Lumber worker.''' Neutral alternative for lumberjack/lumberjill. | *'''Lumber worker.''' Neutral alternative for lumberjack/lumberjill. | ||
Revision as of 19:01, 30 September 2024
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.
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.[1] 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, tey, although they later favored singular they, or he or she.[2] 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).