Gender neutral language
Gender neutral language is a term for words which do not refer to any particular gender, where gendered words might be expected, or for speaking or writing without assuming particular genders.
Gender neutral language in English
Traditional third-person singular pronouns for known people ("he/him/his/his/himself" and "she/her/her/hers/herself") are gendered male or female. There are many possible gender neutral alternatives to these, e.g. avoiding the pronouns altogether, using "they/them/their/theirs/themself" (which is often seen as being a plural or ambiguous pronoun), using "it/it/its/its/itself" (which is often seen as being only for nonhuman objects), or using neopronouns (some sets of which are created specifically to be gender neutral). Some people prefer being referred to without gendered pronouns, and they may have a preference for which set of pronouns they prefer, or they may prefer being referred to by no pronouns at all. These preferences are often linked to nonbinary gender identity.
Many jobs have gendered titles, or the possibility of gendered titles. Gender neutral language here can consist of finding an alternative term for the job or making one of the existing terms neutral by applying it to people of all genders. An example of the former is how "firefighter" replaces "fireman/firewoman", and an example of the latter is how "actor" is sometimes used for women and people of other genders as well as men. Some gendered terms, like "author/authress", have multiple alternatives: "author" is now used for people of all genders, and the term "writer" means essentially the same thing but has never been gendered.
People also have titles which may go with their names, most commonly "Mr" for men and one or several of "Miss", "Ms", and "Mrs" for women. Depending on the country, people may be able to choose their title freely from those titles, or they may be required to use a particular gendered title. Some new titles have been created to be neutral in terms of gender, age, and marital status; these include "Mx", "Misc", "Per", and "Ind". Some people prefer using no title at all. In countries with a nobility, it can be harder to find or create neutral alternatives to titles like "duke/duchess", "lord/lady", "viscount/viscountess", or "king/queen".
Sometimes, people try to make language gender neutral by referring to both male and female terms, e.g. through writing "s/he" or saying "ladies and gentlemen". However, this language is not truly gender neutral because it does not include people who do not identify with "she" or "he" or being a lady or a gentleman.
Gender neutral language in other languages
Gender in language varies widely across the world. Some languages use gendered first-person pronouns; some use gendered verbs; some use gendered pronouns for everything, not just for people; and the politics surrounding gender and gender neutrality in language are different in different cultures.
German
German is a language that makes use of three genders: the male/masculine gender, denoted by the article das; the female/feminine gender, denoted by the article die; and the neutral/neuter gender, denoted by the article das[1].
Gender neutral language
Creating gender neutral language in German is complicated by the fact that there are no gender neutral endings for nouns. The suffix in is attached to words to make them feminine, but there is no corresponding ending to make a word the neutral gender.
There is pressure in Germany to be more inclusive when it comes to gender[2]. However, while this inclusivity includes men and women, it tends to ignore nonbinary genders. There is also still much debate over how to create this inclusivity. For instance, the words der Student refers to a student and implies that the student is a man. Die Studentin refers to a student who is a woman. In order to include both men and women, some Germans write Studenten/nin, others choose Student_in, and still others prefer Studierende[3]. Even beyond that, there are many different, competing standards[1].
Some predict that instead of creating more gender inclusive ways of writing, nouns may just begin to default to the neutral gender. Angela Merkel is now called die Bundeskanzlerin, which has the feminine ending. Eventually, she might just become das Bundeskanzler, which is neutral and could refer to any gender[2].
Others believe that all roles will just begin to default to the feminine article instead of the masculine one. Instead of der Polizist, people would say die Polizist to refer to a police-person[2].
Gender neutral pronouns
Creating more gender neutral pronouns in German is complicated for a few reasons. First, the English option of using they/them/their/theirs/themself is difficult in German because the word for they and the word for she is the same—they are both sie. The difference between they and she would only become clear at the verb, which would be conjugated differently depending on the pronoun[1].
Secondly, while there is a gender neutral article, the accompanying pronouns are the same as the masculine pronouns in all but the nominative and accusative case. In the nominative and accusative, the gender neutral pronoun is es, which translates to it in English, although without the negative, inhuman connotations it sometimes carries in English. In the dative, the gender neutral and masculine pronoun is ihm, corresponding to him in English. Finally, in the genitive, the masculine and gender neutral pronoun is des, corresponding to of in English[1].
There are currently a few different options of gender neutral pronouns in Germany, although none are widely accepted. The most common is xier/sier.[3]
