Nounself pronouns
Nounself pronouns are a wide variety of kinds of gender neutral pronouns. By adapting any noun of one's choosing into a pronoun, one can create a wide variety of very personal and descriptive pronouns. The variations can be themed around concepts that have nothing to do with gender, such as nature, technology, or abstract concepts. This is similar to xenogender, in which a nonbinary person describes their gender by means of metaphorical concepts that have nothing to do with female or male. Nounself pronouns are a creative and often light-hearted experiment in gender expression. Unlike most neologistic pronouns that are in this wiki's list of English neutral pronouns, which are intended to be used for all people regardless of gender, nounself pronouns are intended to be used by only a small number of people who feel that they express what is distinctive about themselves.
Nounself pronouns can be especially difficult to use for people who speak English as a second language, or who are neurodivergent or disabled. For this reason, if you ask others to call you by nounself pronouns, it's good etiquette to offer a secondary set of more standard pronouns, for accessibility. This secondary set may be called "auxiliary pronouns".[1][2]
History
Starting in late 2013[3], a community of nonbinary gender people on the social blogging site Tumblr.com offered the idea of "nounself pronouns." (Some call these "otherkin pronouns," but few otherkin use them, and not all using them are otherkin.) Some of the earliest nounself pronouns are "fae, fae, faer, faers, faeself" derived from fae or faeries, and "bun, bun, buns, buns, bunself" derived from bunny. During 2014, the community proposed about a hundred variations of such pronouns, and many were adopted as the pronouns of particular nonbinary people, and see actual use.
As of 2016, fae pronouns are by far the most represented of any kind of the nounself pronouns, with bun pronouns coming in second, judging by the 2016 Nonbinary Stats survey.[4]Many other nounself pronouns never showed up in any surveys of what pronouns nonbinary people really use.
List of nounself pronouns
An alphabetical list of nounself pronouns, and their origins. More of these variations have been proposed than have been use
See also
References
- ↑ Roxiw (28 December 2015). "What's the deal with auxiliary pronouns vs other pronouns?". Transgender Teen Survival Guide. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
- ↑ otherkinlogic, vulpinekin, and roborenard. "Nounself pronouns and how to use them." https://autismserenity.tumblr.com/post/172817325306/whew-ok-i-made-a-powerpoint-thing-for-nounself
- ↑ Miltersen, E.H. (2016). "Nounself pronouns: 3rd person personal pronouns as identity expression". Journal of Language Works - Sprogvidenskabeligt Studentertidsskrift.
- ↑ NB/GQ Survey 2016 - the worldwide results, March 2016.
