English neutral pronouns: Difference between revisions

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    '''English neutral pronouns''' are an ongoing problem. This is best known not only as a matter of concern when writing documents that need to use inclusive language, but also for any [[nonbinary]] people who prefer not to have their pronouns imply that they are female or male. As shown in surveys, many nonbinary people are okay with being called "he" or "she," but there are also many nonbinary people who don't want to be called either of these. The surveys show that the most popular gender-neutral pronoun for nonbinary people is [[singular they]], but nearly as many prefer or accept some other neutral pronoun. See examples of this in [[Pronouns#Examples_of_specific_nonbinary_people.27s_pronouns|pronouns in use for nonbinary people]].
    '''English neutral pronouns''' are useful not only when writing documents that need to use inclusive language, but also for any [[nonbinary]] people who prefer not to have their pronouns imply that they are female or male. As shown in surveys, many nonbinary people are okay with being called "he" or "she," but there are also many nonbinary people who don't want to be called either of these. The surveys show that the most popular gender-neutral pronoun for nonbinary people is [[singular they]], but nearly as many prefer or accept some other neutral pronoun. See examples of this in [[Pronouns#Examples_of_specific_nonbinary_people.27s_pronouns|pronouns in use for nonbinary people]].


    ==History==
    ==History==

    Revision as of 20:48, 11 October 2020

    Most used neutral pronouns
    1. They/them (79.5%)
    2. Xe/xem (7.2%)
    3. E/em (5.2%)
    4. Ze/hir (4.7%)
    5. It/its (4.4%)
    6. Fae/faer (4.3%)

    Data provided by the 2019 Gender Census.[1]

    English neutral pronouns are useful not only when writing documents that need to use inclusive language, but also for any nonbinary people who prefer not to have their pronouns imply that they are female or male. As shown in surveys, many nonbinary people are okay with being called "he" or "she," but there are also many nonbinary people who don't want to be called either of these. The surveys show that the most popular gender-neutral pronoun for nonbinary people is singular they, but nearly as many prefer or accept some other neutral pronoun. See examples of this in pronouns in use for nonbinary people.

    History

    In English, people are usually called by a pronoun that implies their gender. For example, she for women, and he for men. The use of singular they as a gender-neutral pronoun has been documented as standard usage in English throughout the past thousand years. However, prescriptive grammarians in the late eighteenth century decided that it was bad grammar because it works like a plural and because it isn't done in Latin.[2]

    Prescriptive grammarians of the late eighteenth century instead recommended using "he" as a gender-neutral pronoun when one is needed, instead of "singular they."[3] However, "gender-neutral he" results in writings that are unclear about whether they mean only men or not, which makes problems in law.[4]

    Regional nominative pronouns

    There have been some native English dialects that have their own gender-neutral pronouns, such as a, ou, and yo. These are often regional. One curious thing that a, ou, and yo all have in common is that they have only been recorded in their nominative form. It's possible that these three sets of pronouns may not actually have other forms (possessive, reflexive, etc)