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Gender neutral language in English: Difference between revisions
→Ma'am/Sir: tidying up
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===== Ma'am/Sir ===== | ===== Ma'am/Sir ===== | ||
Standard English doesn't have a gender neutral word that's used in the same way as Ma'am and Sir — a formal form of address used in some places to show respect, and commonly required for use by customer service professionals. People have created some words to fill this lexical gap, but they remain uncommon words. People have also suggested using other words in place of Ma'am and Sir, but they tend to fail the tests of formality and simplicity that customer service professionals (and their managers) apply to such usage. | Standard English doesn't have a gender neutral word that's used in the same way as Ma'am and Sir — a formal form of address used in some places to show respect, and commonly required for use by customer service professionals. People have created some words to fill this lexical gap, but they remain uncommon words. People have also suggested using other words in place of Ma'am and Sir, but they tend to fail the tests of formality and simplicity that customer service professionals (and their managers) apply to such usage. {{Common word|word1=Friend|meaning1=Neutral, informal.|ref1=|word2=Tiz|meaning2=A gender-neutral replacement for ma'am/sir, from Citizen.}} | ||
* Citizen; neutral. | |||
*Comrade; neutral, not suitable for all situations due to leftist/communist connotations. | |||
* Comrade; neutral, not suitable for all situations due to leftist/communist connotations. | |||
* Friend; neutral, very informal. | * Friend; neutral, very informal. | ||
* | * Laddam; queer, a mix of Lad and Madam. | ||
* | * Mir; queer, a mix of Sir and Madam. | ||
* Mirdam; queer, a mix of Sir and Madam, although it still sounds similar to Madam. | * Mirdam; queer, a mix of Sir and Madam, although it still sounds similar to Madam. | ||
* Mistdam; queer, a mix of Mister and Madam. | * Mistdam; queer, a mix of Mister and Madam. | ||
* Sir; neutral, Sir is used neutrally in the military, although this doesn’t work as well outside of that. | |||
* Sir’ram; queer, a mix of Sir and Ma’am. | * Sir’ram; queer, a mix of Sir and Ma’am. | ||
* ''' | * Shazam'''.''' Neutral, coined by a highschool student wishing to address a nonbinary teacher with a formal term of respect.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/groups/1601168520209978/|title=Facebook Groups|website=www.facebook.com|language=en|access-date=2020-11-18}}</ref> | ||
* ''' | *Tiz; neutral, short for citizen. | ||
* Zam'''.''' Neutral, based on shazam, coined by Arin Wolfe.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/groups/1601168520209978/|title=Facebook Groups|website=www.facebook.com|language=en|access-date=2020-11-18}}</ref> | |||
===Common nouns=== | ===Common nouns=== | ||