Gender neutral language in English

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    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).

    Words and alternatives

    This is a list of both standard (dictionary) and non-standard (created) terms and pronouns to include nonbinary identities. It should be noted that while some are genderless or third gender, others are multigender. Terms will be marked with the implied gender identity when possible.

    Pronouns

    See main article at English neutral pronouns.

    Titles

    See main article at Gender neutral titles.

    Common nouns

    Type of common noun Feminine Masculine Gender inclusive (could be masculine or feminine) Specifically nonbinary
    Young person Girl, maiden Boy, youth Child, kid, infant, teen, tween, young person Enby
    Adult person Woman, lady Man, gentleman Adult, gentlebeing, gentleperson, grownup Enby, enban
    Person of any age Female Male Being, puman, human being, one, person, somebody, someone Enby

    Family and relationship words

    See also: family and intimacy.

    Parent

    Parents as in the formal words mother or father, or the informal mama or dada. Gender-neutral and gender-inclusive words for a parent of any gender, or non-standard specifically nonbinary, queer, or genderqueer words.

    Common words

    • Parent: Neutral, formal[3]
    • Baba. "Neutral, based on mama and dada. (Note, baba means dad in some languages and grandmother in others.)"[3]
    • Bibi. "Queer, based on the B in NB [nonbinary], similar to mama and papa/dada."[3]
    • Cenn. "Neutral, short for cennend," which see.[3]
    • Cennend. "Neutral, Old English (Anglo-Saxon) meaning parent."[3]
    • Dommy. "Queer, mixture of mommy and daddy (note: sounds like Dom/me, a BDSM term)."[3]
    • Mada. Queer, mixture of mama and dad.
    • Maddy. "Queer, mixture of mummy/mommy and daddy."[3]
    • Moddy. "Queer, mixture of mommy and daddy."[3]
    • Muddy. "Queer, mixture of mummy and daddy."[3]
    • Nibi. "A mix of bibi and nini."
    • Nini. "Queer, based on the N in NB, similar to mama and papa/dada."[3]
    • Non. Follows a similar pattern (CvC) to Mom or Dad, could be short for "nonbinary". Variation Nonny for use with young children, similar to Mommy or Daddy.
    • Par. "Neutral, short for parent."[3]
    • Pare: Short for parent. Can call to mind an au pair, which is a live in childcare worker (usually a woman but not always). The term means equal to, implying that one is equal to a mother or father. Also similar to père, or the French word for father. Other associations include pear (the fruit) or pair, as in the other half of a couple.
    • Parental Unit (PU). Neutral, informal, humorous, possibly disrespectful. Used by the alien family in Coneheads, and taken up by popular culture.[3]
    • Per. "Neutral, short for parent."[3] (See also: per pronouns and Pr title.)
    • Ren. Derived from "parent." Gender-neutral. The equivalent to mommy or daddy is "renny." Coined or popularized by Katie Hall in 2017.[4]
    • Zaza. "Queer, based on mama and papa/dada."[3]
    • Zither. "Queer, based on mother and father. (Note, zither is also the name of a musical instrument.)"[3]

    Child

    Some of these gender-inclusive or gender-queer words refer only to relationship (as in daughter, son, or offspring), others only to age (girl, boy, or young one), and some to both (children).

    Common words

    • Baby: Standard neutral word for very young offspring or very young people.
    • Child: Standard gender neutral word for a young person or an offspring. Implied age isn't adult, but may be.
    • Kid: Standard informal gender neutral term for young children or young offspring.
    • Bitsy. Non-standard genderqueer term for a very young person.