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English neutral pronouns: Difference between revisions

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English neutral pronouns (edit)

Revision as of 01:25, 11 October 2020

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Moved some of the least commonly used pronouns to the talk page.
imported>Sekhet
(Starting to add sources about notable people who go by these pronouns, with photos of them. Cleaning up a little.)
imported>Sekhet
(Moved some of the least commonly used pronouns to the talk page.)
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====A====
====A====


'''A''' (nominative form only). "In 1789, William H. Marshall records […] Middle English epicene ‘a’, used by the 14th century English writer John of Trevisa and both the OED and Wright's English Dialect Dictionary confirm the use of ‘a’ for he, she, it, they, and even I. This ‘a’ is a reduced form of the Anglo-Saxon he = ‘he’ and heo = ‘she’.” Source: Baron, Dennis (1986). Grammar and Gender. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-03526-8. as cited by Williams, John (1990s)." <ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100418022839/http://www.aetherlumina.com/gnp/history.html "History - Native-English GNPs". Gender-Neutral Pronoun FAQ.] Retrieved 2007-01-01.</ref> Some living British dialects still use the gender-neutral "a" pronoun.<ref>"Epicene pronouns." ''American Heritage Book of English Usage''. [http://web.archive.org/web/20080630041424/http://www.bartleby.com/64/C005/004.html http://web.archive.org/web/20080630041424/http://www.bartleby.com/64/C005/004.html]</ref>
'''A''' (nominative form only). "In 1789, William H. Marshall records […] Middle English epicene ‘a’, used by the 14th century English writer John of Trevisa and both the OED and Wright's English Dialect Dictionary confirm the use of ‘a’ for he, she, it, they, and even I. This ‘a’ is a reduced form of the Anglo-Saxon he = ‘he’ and heo = ‘she’.”<ref>Baron, Dennis (1986). Grammar and Gender. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-03526-8. as cited by Williams, John (1990s).</ref> <ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100418022839/http://www.aetherlumina.com/gnp/history.html "History - Native-English GNPs". Gender-Neutral Pronoun FAQ.] Retrieved 2007-01-01.</ref> Some living British dialects still use the gender-neutral "a" pronoun.<ref>"Epicene pronouns." ''American Heritage Book of English Usage''. [http://web.archive.org/web/20080630041424/http://www.bartleby.com/64/C005/004.html http://web.archive.org/web/20080630041424/http://www.bartleby.com/64/C005/004.html]</ref>


====Ou====
====Ou====
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==The list==
==The list==


This list is of third-person singular pronouns in English. Some are "new" pronouns, and others have been in use for over a hundred years.
This list is of third-person gender-neutral singular pronouns in English. Some are "new" pronouns, and others have been in use for over a hundred years.


Please feel free to add more, though note that if you don't provide citations for [[Talk:English neutral pronouns#Notability|notability]] or include all five forms your entry may be moved to the talk page or be removed entirely. List pronoun sets in alphabetical order by their nominative form, or by the name of the set.
Please feel free to add more, though note that if you don't provide citations for [[Talk:English neutral pronouns#Notability|notability]] or include all five forms your entry may be moved to the talk page or be removed entirely. List pronoun sets in alphabetical order by their nominative form, or by the name of the set.
===*e (splat pronouns)===
'''*e, h*, h*s, h*s, h*self''' (this was the exact set used in LambdaMOO).<ref>Klaus Beck, ''Computervermittelte Kommunikation im Internet.'' p. 157.</ref><ref>Laura Borràs Castanyer, ed. ''Textualidades electrónicas: Nuevos escenarios para la literatura.'' p. 158.</ref> Called "splat pronouns," because the asterisk symbol is also called a "splat," these all use an asterisk to represent ambiguity between "he" and "she."
'''Usage:'''
Some software and Internet resources in the 1990s used them informally as gender-neutral pronouns. The multi-user online environment LambdaMOO offered these "splat" pronouns in addition to "[[English neutral pronouns#E|Spivak]]" pronouns. In 2002, 10 out of 4061 people on LambdaMOO had chosen to use splat pronouns for themselves.<ref name="aetherluminarefs">https://web.archive.org/web/20070310125817/http://aetherlumina.com/gnp/references.html</ref> However, splat pronouns didn't make an appearance in the 2015 or 2016 Nonbinary Stats surveys.
'''Forms:'''
* '''Nominative:''' When I tell someone a joke ''*e'' laughs.
* '''Accusative:''' When I greet a friend I hug ''h*''.
* '''Pronominal possessive:''' When someone does not get a haircut, ''h*s'' hair grows long.
* '''Predicative possessive:''' If I need a phone, my friend lets me borrow ''h*s''.
* '''Reflexive:''' Each child feeds ''h*self''.
'''On Pronoun Island:''' [http://pronoun.is/*e/h*/h*s/h*s/h*self http://pronoun.is/*e/h*/h*s/h*s/h*self


===Alternating pronouns===
===Alternating pronouns===
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* '''Predicative possessive:''' If my mobile phone runs out of power, ''he'' lets me borrow ''hers''.
* '''Predicative possessive:''' If my mobile phone runs out of power, ''he'' lets me borrow ''hers''.
* '''Reflexive:''' Each child feeds ''herself''. '''or''' Each child feeds ''himself''.
* '''Reflexive:''' Each child feeds ''herself''. '''or''' Each child feeds ''himself''.
===Co===
'''co, co, co's (cos), co's, coself'''. Mary Orovan created these in 1970, derived from the Indo-European ''*ko'', as an inclusive alternative to "he or she."<ref name="d baron epicene">Dennis Baron, "The Epicene Pronouns: A chronology of the word that failed." [http://www.english.illinois.edu/-people-/faculty/debaron/essays/epicene.htm http://www.english.illinois.edu/-people-/faculty/debaron/essays/epicene.htm] {{dead link}}</ref><ref name="aetherlumina listing 1">https://web.archive.org/web/20070310125817/http://aetherlumina.com/gnp/references.html</ref> In the pages about inclusive pronouns in the book ''Words and Women'', authors Miller and Swift talk about this pronoun's origins, history, and contemporary usage:
<blockquote>"'Humanizing English,' an eight-page pamphlet first published in 1970, included [Mary] Orovan's proposed common gender pronoun ''co,'' which is now being used in everyday speech and writing by members of several alternative-life-style communities. Twin Oaks Community, a group of some sixty adults and children living in Louisa, Virginia, adopted Orovan's nonsexist grammatical form in 1972. The pronoun has since spread to other communities in Virginia and Missouri, is used in a book on radical therapy published in 1973 by Harper &amp; Row, and it routinely replaces 'he or she' or 'he/she' in the magazine ''Communities,''' which is addressed to cooperative-living groups across the country. Orovan derived ''co'' from the Indo-European root form ''ko,'' the common ancestor of both the masculine and feminine English pronouns. Co, with its suggestion of 'together,' is not used to replace either the masculine or feminine pronoun when applied to a specific individual, but only as an alternative to the unisex generic ''he.'' Twin Oaks' newsletter ''Leaves,'' for example, comments in an article on communal work undertaken by members, 'Vacations are indeed a burden for the remaining members, but everyone takes cos turn at carrying the burden.'"<ref>Casey Miller and Kate Swift, ''Words and Women.'' Pages 129-130.</ref></blockquote>
Today, "Co" is still used in some intentional communities, such as in the legal policies of Twin Oaks in Virginia, which provides information on the pronoun in its [http://www.twinoaks.org/community/visit/guide.html visitor guide] web page.
'''Use by people:'''
In the 2018 Gender Census, only one respondent entered ''co/co/cos/cos/coself'' as cos favourite pronoun.<ref name="Census2018"/>
'''Forms:'''
* '''Nominative:''' When I tell someone a joke ''co'' laughs.
* '''Accusative:''' When I greet a friend I hug ''co''.
* '''Pronominal possessive:''' When someone does not get a haircut, ''co's'' hair grows long. (Or ''cos'' hair grows.)
* '''Predicative possessive:''' If I need a phone, my friend lets me borrow ''co's''.
* '''Reflexive:''' Each child feeds ''coself''.
'''On Pronoun Island:''' [http://pronoun.is/co/co/co's/co's/coself http://pronoun.is/co/co/co's/co's/coself]


===E===
===E===
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'''On Pronoun Island:''' [http://pronoun.is/e http://pronoun.is/e]
'''On Pronoun Island:''' [http://pronoun.is/e http://pronoun.is/e]
====E (es)====
'''e, em, es (e's), (e's), (not recorded)'''. Created in 1890 by James Rogers of Crestview, Florida.<ref name="aetherlumina listing 2"></ref><ref name="d baron epicene" /> In about 1977, version where all forms starts with capital letters was independently "created by psychologist Donald G. MacKay of the University of California at Los Angeles."<ref name="d baron epicene" /> In 1989, independently created by Victor J. Stone, Professor of Law.<ref name="d baron epicene" />
'''Forms:'''
* '''Nominative:''' When I tell someone a joke ''e'' (or ''E'') laughs.
* '''Accusative:''' When I greet a friend I hug ''em''.
* '''Pronominal possessive:''' When someone does not get a haircut, ''es'' hair grows long.
* '''Predicative possessive:''' (not recorded)
* '''Reflexive:''' Each child feeds ''emself''.<ref>THE LAW: For the Record; E Has a Modest Proposal on Ungendered Personal Pronouns. (1989, August 25). New York Times. Retrieved from https://link-gale-com.lsproxy.austincc.edu/apps/doc/A175745500/OVIC?u=txshracd2487&sid=OVIC&xid=0ae5e2ed</ref>


===Ey (Elverson pronouns)===
===Ey (Elverson pronouns)===
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* '''Predicative possessive:''' If I need a phone, my friend lets me borrow ''his or hers''.
* '''Predicative possessive:''' If I need a phone, my friend lets me borrow ''his or hers''.
* '''Reflexive:''' Each child feeds ''himself or herself''.
* '''Reflexive:''' Each child feeds ''himself or herself''.
=== Hu ===
'''hu, hum, hus, hus, humself'''. Several times since the 1970s, pronoun neologisms have been created based on a "humanist" model using <u>hu</u>man as a base or root source for pronouns. These attempts have been about using nominally gender-inclusive or neutral source etymologies in order to create new pronouns with familiar and hence more easily understood spelling and pronunciation. This new humanist model takes these prior efforts and expands it to include options for pronouns, nouns, honorifics and more--and an (eventually) complete framework / model for neutral and inclusive English.
Pronunciation of ''hu'' is identical to the first part of ''hu''man (i.e., like the name Hugh), and hum follows the same model (as in, ''hum''an).
'''Forms:'''
*'''Nominative:''' When I tell someone a joke ''hu'' laughs.
*'''Accusative:''' When I greet a friend I hug ''hum''.
*'''Pronominal possessive:''' When someone does not get a haircut, ''hus'' hair grows long.
*'''Predicative possessive:''' If I need a phone, my friend lets me borrow ''hus''.
*'''Reflexive:''' Each child feeds ''humself''.
'''On Posilicious:''' [https://posilicious.com/2020/08/27/gender-neutral-english-new-humanist-model/ Gender Neutral and Inclusive Humanist English]
=== Hy ===
'''hy, hym, hys, hys, hymself'''. Although rarely used nowadays, these pronouns date back to Middle English, in which they were an alternate spelling of he/him/his/his/himself.
A 1991 Usenet user wrote:
{{quote|I rather like Norman Cousin's proposal for a new personal pronoun of indeterminate or insignificant gender (he made this back in the '60s): ne/ner/nim (as in Not He/She, Not her, and Not Him). Of course, we c