English neutral pronouns: Difference between revisions

'''English neutral pronouns''' are an ongoing problem in this language. This is a best known as a matter of concern not only when writing documents that need to use inclusive language. It's also of concern 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 by 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#Use for non binary people|pronouns in use for nonbinary people]].

In English, people are usually called by a [[pronouns|pronoun]] that implies their gender. For example, [[English neutral pronouns#She|she]] for women, and [[English neutral pronouns#He|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.<ref>Henry Churchyard, "Singular 'Their' in Jane Austen and Elsewhere." [http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/linghebr/austheir.html http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/linghebr/austheir.html]</ref>

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). For this reason, these three sets of native English pronouns are listed separately from the other pronouns on this page that have complete forms. Although it's easy to make up more forms for these pronouns (such as inventing "ouself"), this is not what linguists have recorded in use.

Seeking a solution to the problem of a lack of a gender-neutral pronoun in English that satisfies all needs, people since the mid nineteenth century have proposed many new gender-neutral singular pronouns.<ref name="aetherlumina archive history">"History." ''Gender Neutral Pronoun FAQ''. https://web.archive.org/web/20050207103316/http://www.aetherlumina.com/gnp/history.html</ref> For example, [[English neutral pronouns#Sie|sie]], [[English neutral pronouns#E|Spivak pronouns]], and others. None of these new words (neologisms) have become standard use or adopted into books of English grammar. However, some sets of these neologistic pronouns have seen use for real people with [[nonbinary]] gender identities, and for characters in fiction. These neologisms are the main topic explored in the list that follows in this article.

* In Internet environments, spivak was categorized not only as a set of pronouns, but as a gender identity, which Thomas describes: "The spivak gender [...] is more representative of an emotional and intellectual state than of a physical configuration. It should be pointed out at the start that the sexuality available to a spivak is a bonus of online life, but it isn't the raison d'etre. Rather, it's a subtle notion of a gender-free condition. It's not androgynous. It's not unisexual. It's simply ambiguous."<ref>Sue Thomas, ''Hello World: Travels in Virtuality.'' p. 31-32.</ref> Some self-described spivaks use spivak as a proper noun for their non-binary gender identity.

'''he, him, his, his, himself'''. Often called male pronouns, grammarians acknowledge that this standard set of pronouns can also be used as gender-neutral or gender-inclusive pronouns for unspecified persons, such as in instructions and legal documents. In the eighteenth century, when prescriptive grammarians decided that "singular they" was no longer acceptable as a gender-neutral pronoun, they instead recommended "gender-neutral he." "Prescriptive grammarians have been calling for 'he' as the gender-neutral pronoun of choice since at least 1745, when a British schoolmistress named Anne Fisher laid down the law in ''A New Grammar''."<ref name="bustillos 250"></ref> The use of "gender-neutral he" can make problems in how laws are interpreted, because it's unclear whether it is meant to be gender-inclusive or male-only. For example, in 1927, "the Canadian Supreme Court ruled that women were not persons because its statutes referred to 'persons' with male pronouns."<ref>"Pronoun perspectives." ''Gender neutral pronoun blog.'' [https://genderneutralpronoun.wordpress.com/links/pronoun-perspectives/ https://genderneutralpronoun.wordpress.com/links/pronoun-perspectives/]</ref><ref>Geoffrey Pullum, "Canada Supreme Court Gets the Grammar Right." ''Language Log.'' August 18. 2004. [http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001362.html http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001362.html]</ref> In the USA in the nineteenth century, suffragists Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton fought for laws to stop using the "gender-neutral he," because there were cases where this pronoun had been arbitrarily interpreted as a "male he" in order to exclude women from legal protections, or from the right to a license that they had passed exams for. This abuse of legal language happened even in if the documents explicitly said that "he" was meant to include women.<ref name="bustillos 250"></ref> Thanks to work in the 1970s by feminists Casey Miller and Kate Swift, "gender-neutral he" has been significantly phased out of use, replaced by the more inclusive [[English neutral pronouns#He or she|he or she]].<ref>Elizabeth Isele, "Casey Miller and Kate Swift: Women Who Dared To Disturb the Lexicon." ''Women in Literature and Life Assembly,'' Vol. 3, Fall 1994. [http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/old-WILLA/fall94/h2-isele.html]</ref>

"Results of pronoun survey." January 1, 2012. http://anlamasanda.tumblr.com/post/15140114246</ref> It may be the case that people who prefer to be called "he or she" simply entered their preference into the surveys in a slightly different format. It may also be the case that it's virtually unheard-of for nonbinary people to feel that "he or she" represents them. Either way, its absence in these surveys is intriguing, and may need to be addressed more specifically in future surveys.

'''ne, ner, nis, nis, nemself'''. In a 1974 issue of ''Today's Education,'' "Mildred Fenner attributes this to Fred Wilhelms."<ref name="d baron epicene"></ref><ref name="aetherlumina listing 2"></ref> Veterinarian Al Lippart independently proposed the same set of pronouns in 1999, recommending them for use when it would be inappropriate to specify the gender of a human, animal, or deity.<ref>Al Lippart, "Intoducing the New Neutral Third Person Singular Personal Pronoun." 1999. ''Introducing... Ne.'' [http://www.lippart.com/ne.html http://www.lippart.com/ne.html] </ref> Lawyer Roberta Morris also independently proposed this same set of pronouns in 2009, saying that these pronouns would be more efficient for within the 140 character limit of Twitter than "he or she." Morris also pointed out that the "n" can refer to "neuter."<ref>Roberta Morris, "The need for a neuter pronoun: A solution." September 29, 2009. [http://myunpublishedworks2.blogspot.com/2009/09/need-for-neuter-pronoun-solution.html http://myunpublishedworks2.blogspot.com/2009/09/need-for-neuter-pronoun-solution.html]</ref>

*'''Second person:''' Instead of talking about someone in third person, why not talk to them instead? Say you're talking to Kevin and Elisa, who prefers no third-person pronouns, is in the room. You could tell Kevin, "I'd love to go with you for coffee, but Elisa's already claimed me for the evening," but if you do that and want to start expanding on what Elisa's up to, you might be tempted to use third-person pronouns. Instead you could shift to Elisa and say "but ''you've'' got me booked for the evening," and then Elisa could tell about the plans without being spoken for.

'''one, one, one’s, one’s, oneself'''. This is a standard English set of pronouns used for a hypothetical person whose gender is not specified.

'''Use in real life and non-fiction:''' Person pronouns were one of the sets of pronouns built in to MediaMOO for users to choose from.<ref>Laura Borràs Castanyer, ed. ''Textualidades electrónicas: Nuevos escenarios para la literatura.'' p. 158.</ref> Richard Ekins and Dave King used these pronouns in the book ''The Transgender Phenomenon'' (2006).<ref>Richard Ekins and Dave King. ''The Transgender Phenomenon.'' Sage Publications, 2006.</ref>

'''she, her, her, hers, herself'''. Often called female pronouns, although in standard usage, they're not used exclusively for women. Grammarians agree that it is standard and acceptable for this set to be used for women, female animals, and ships. The set is also poetically used for countries and fields of studies, which grammarians also see as acceptable. Some feminists recommend replacing "gender-neutral he" with "gender-neutral she." "In 1970, Dana Densmore’s article “Speech is the Form of Thought” appeared in No More Fun and Games: A Journal of Female Liberation; Densmore is evidently the first U.S. advocate of 'she' as a gender-neutral pronoun, a solution many writers, particularly academic writers, favor today."<ref name="bustillos 250"></ref> 1974, Gena Corea recommended replacing the "gender-neutral he" with a "gender-neutral she," and like Denmore, argued that the word "she" would be understood to include the word "he."<ref name="d baron epicene"></ref>

* Used  by Greg Egan for non-binary gender characters-- including artificial intelligences, as well as transgender humans who identify as a specific nonbinary gender they call "asex"-- in his novels ''Distress'' (1995) and ''Diaspora'' (1998).<ref>John McIntosh, "ve, vis, ver." [http://www.urticator.net/essay/0/30.html]</ref> Egan is sometimes credited with having created these pronouns, but it doesn't appear that he claims to have done so.

'''zie, zir (zim), zir, zirs, zirself'''. (Compare the most similar pronoun set, "ze, zir", and other similar pronouns, "xe" and "zhe".) The Gender Neutral Pronoun FAQ says this set (with the "zie" spelling, and accusative "zir") was widely used on the Internet at the time, but doesn't know when it was created.<ref>"GNP FAQ." [https://web.archive.org/web/20120229202924/http:/aetherlumina.com/gnp/listing.html]</ref> Andrés Pérez-Bergquist recommended a version of this set (with the "zie" spelling, and accusative "zim") in 2000, but claims not to have created it.<ref>Andrés Pérez-Bergquist, "Gender-neutral pronouns: The value of zie." 2000. [http://santiago.mapache.org/nonfiction/essays/zie.html http://santiago.mapache.org/nonfiction/essays/zie.html]</ref>

* This set (with the "zie" spelling, and accusative "zir") is in the fantasy setting of Bard Bloom's ''World Tree'', for the many characters with sexes other than female or male. Many species in this setting have such sexes, including the protagonist of a book in that setting, [http://www.amazon.com/Sythyrys-Journal-Chronicle-Transaffection-Adventure/dp/1451562934 Sythyry's Journal], which was first serialized as a blog starting in 2002. The setting also has a role-playing game handbook, ''World Tree: A role playing game of species and civilization'' (2001).