 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Gender neutrality in languages with gendered third-person pronouns" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(May 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
A third-person pronoun is apronoun that refers to an entity other than the speaker or listener.[1] Some languages, such asSlavic, withgender-specific pronouns have them as part of agrammatical gender system, a system ofagreement where most or all nouns have a value for this grammatical category. A few languages with gender-specific pronouns, such as English,Afrikaans,Defaka,Khmu,Malayalam,Tamil, andYazgulyam, lack grammatical gender; in such languages, gender usually adheres to "natural gender", which is often based on biological sex.[2] Other languages, including mostAustronesian languages, lack gender distinctions in personal pronouns entirely, as well as any system of grammatical gender.[1]
In languages with pronominal gender, problems of usage may arise in contexts where a person of unspecified or unknownsocial gender is being referred to but commonly available pronouns are gender-specific. Different solutions to this issue have been proposed and used in various languages.
Many languages of the world (including mostAustronesian languages, manyEast Asian languages, theQuechuan languages, and theUralic languages[1]) do not have gender distinctions in personal pronouns, just as most of them lack any system ofgrammatical gender. In others, such as many of theNiger–Congo languages, there is a system of grammatical gender (ornoun classes), but the divisions are based onclassifications other than sex, such as animacy, rationality, or countability.[3] InSwahili, for example, the independent third person pronounyeye 'she/he' can be used to refer to a female or male being. What matters in this case is that the referent belongs to the animate class (i.e humans or non-human animals) as opposed to an inanimate class.[4][5] Since pronouns do not distinguish the social gender of the referent, they are considered neutral in this kind of system.[6]
In other languages – including mostIndo-European andAfro-Asiatic languages – third-personpersonal pronouns (at least those used to refer to people) intrinsically distinguish male from female. This feature commonly co-exists with a full system of grammatical gender, where all nouns are assigned to classes such as masculine, feminine and neuter.
In languages with grammatical gender, even pronouns which are semantically gender-neutral may be required to take a gender for such purposes as grammaticalagreement. Thus inFrench, for example, the first- and second-person personal pronouns may behave as either masculine or feminine depending on the sex of thereferent; andindefinite pronouns such asquelqu'un ('someone') andpersonne ('no one') are treated conventionally as masculine, even thoughpersonne as a noun ('person') is only feminine regardless of the sex of the referent. (SeeGrammatical gender § Grammatical gender can be realized on pronouns.) There are both direct and indirect options for nonbinary referents, although the use of some forms is contested.[7]
Example of agreement in a language with grammatical gender[8]
(1)Lestomates,elles sont encore vertes. Formal French 'The tomatoes, they are still green.'FP, (Lambrecht 1981:40, cited by Gelderen, 2022, p. 33)
(2)C'est quechacun,il a sa manière de ... Swiss spoken French 'Everyone has his own way of ...' (Fronseca-Greber 2000:338, cited by Gelderen, 2022, p. 33)
A grammatical gender system can erode as observed in languages such as Odia (formerly Oriya),English and Persian.[9] In English, a general system of noun gender has been lost, but gender distinctions are preserved in the third-person singular pronouns. This means that the relation between pronouns and nouns is no longer syntactically motivated in the system at large. Instead, the choice of anaphoric pronouns is controlled by referential gender or social gender.[10]
Example of agreement in English[11]
(3)Maryidescribed Billjtoherselfi.
(4)Johnjcame in andhejwas wearing a hat.
Issues concerning gender and pronoun usage commonly arise in situations where it is necessary to choose between gender-specific pronouns, even though the sex of the person or persons being referred to is not known, not specified, or (for plurals) mixed. In English and many other languages, the masculine form has sometimes served as the default orunmarked form; that is, masculine pronouns have been used in cases where the referent or referents are not known to be (all) female.[12] This collective masculine is also the case in ancient languages, likeClassical Greek andBiblical Hebrew and have influenced the modern forms. This leads to sentences such as (5a) in English, and (6a) in French.
Example of gender-neutral masculine: English
(5) a.Ifanybody comes, tellhim. masculinehim used to refer to a person of unknown sex b. *Ifanybody comes, tellher. feminineher is not used to refer to a person of unknown sex
Example of collective masculine: French
(6) a. Vosamis sont arrivés —Ils étaient en avance. 'Yourfriends have arrived -they were early.' Note: plural masculineils used if group has men and women b. Vosamies sont arrivées —Elles étaient en avance. 'YourfriendsFEM have arrivedFEM -theyFEM were early.' Note: plural feminineelles used if group has only women; noun is feminine (amies), as is past participle (arrivées)
As early as 1795, dissatisfaction with the convention of the collective masculine led to calls for gender-neutral pronouns, and attempts to invent pronouns for this purpose date back to at least 1850, although the use ofsingularthey as a natural gender-neutral pronoun in English has persisted since the 14th century.[13]
TheEnglish language has gender-specific personal pronouns in the third-person singular. The masculine pronoun ishe (with the related formshim,his andhimself); the feminine isshe (with the related formsher,hers andherself); the neuter isit (with the related formsits anditself). The third-person pluralthey (and its related formsthem,their,themselves) are gender-neutral and can also be used to refer to singular, personal antecedents, as in (7).
(7)Wherea recipient of an allowance under section 4 absentsthemself from Canada,payment of the allowance shall ...[14]
Generally speaking,he refers to males, andshe refers to females. When a person has adopted a persona of a different gender (such as whenacting or performing indrag), pronouns with the gender of the persona are used. Ingay slang, the gender of pronouns is sometimes reversed (gender transposition).[citation needed]
He andshe are normally used for humans; use ofit can be dehumanizing, and, more importantly, implies a lack of gender even if one is present, and is usually, thus, inappropriate.It is sometimes used to refer to a baby or a child in a generic sense as in response to the questionWhat is it? when a baby has been born:-It's a girl/boy. However, when talking to parents of intersex babies, some doctors are advised to useyour baby instead.[15]It is often used for non-human animals of unknown sex, buthe orshe is frequently used for a non-human animal with a known sex.He orshe are also for a non-human animal who is referred to by a proper name, as in (8) whereFido is understood to be the name of a dog.[16] At least one grammar states thathe orshe is obligatory for animals referred to by aproper name.[16]
(8)Fido adoreshis blanket.
The other English pronouns (the first- and second-person personal pronounsI,we,you, etc.; the third-person plural personal pronounthey; theindefinite pronounsone,someone,anyone, etc.; and others) do not make male–female gender distinctions; that is, they are gender-neutral. The only distinction made is between personal and non-personal reference (someone vs.something,anyone vs.anything,who vs.what,whoever vs.whatever, etc.).
She is sometimes used for named ships and countries; this may be considered old-fashioned and is in decline.[citation needed] In some local dialects and casual speechshe andhe are used for various objects and named vehicles (like a personal car). Animate objects likerobots andvoice assistants are often assumed to have a gender and sometimes have a name with a matching gender. (SeeGender in English § Metaphorical gender.)
For people who aretransgender, style guides and associations of journalists and health professionals advise use of thepronoun preferred or considered appropriate by the person in question.[17][18][19] When dealing with clients or patients, health practitioners are advised to take note of the pronouns used by the individuals themselves,[20] which may involve using different pronouns at different times.[21][22][23] This is also extended to the name preferred by the person referred to.[23][24][25] LGBTQ+ advocacy groups also advise using the pronouns and names preferred or considered appropriate by the person referred to.[26] They further recommend avoiding gender confusion when referring to the background of transgender people, such as using a title or rank to avoid a gendered pronoun or name.[27]
For English, there is no universal agreement on a gender-neutral third-person pronoun which could be used for a person whose gender is unknown or who is anon-binary gender identity; various alternatives are described in the following sections.
Since at least the 14th century,they (including related forms such asthem,their,theirs,themselves, andthemself) has been used with a plural verb form to refer to a singular antecedent.[28] This usage is known as thesingular they, as it is equivalent to the corresponding singular form of the pronoun.[29]
(9)There's nota man I meet but doth salute meAs if I weretheir well-acquainted friend <(William Shakespeare, A Comedy of Errors, 1623)[30]instead of:As if I werehis well-acquainted friend
This is the generalized usage in third person. To imply 'his' is incorrect.
(10)Every fool can do asthey're bid. <(Jonathan Swift, Polite Conversation, 1738)[30]instead of:Every fool can do ashe's bid.
(11)Both sisters were uncomfortable enough.Each felt forthe other, and of course forthemselves. <(Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, 1813)[30]instead of:Each felt forthe other, and of course forherself.
Prescription against singularthey has historically impacted more formal registers of writing. Conversely, to the present day, singularthey continues to be attested in both speech and less formal registers of writing in British and American English.[31][30] Recent corpus data suggest that English dialects in Hong Kong, India, and Singapore use thisepicene less than British English.[32] TheCambridge Grammar of the English Language and theMerriam-Webster Dictionary include the following examples among the possible uses of singularthey, which they note is not universally adopted by all speakers.
(12)Anyone who arrives at the door can letthemself in using this key.[33]
(13)I knew certain things about ...the person I was interviewing ...Theyhad adopted their gender-neutral name a few years ago,whenthey began to consciously identify as nonbinary ... (Amy Harmon)[34]
While many speakers recognize the need for gender neutral pronouns, they nevertheless deem referential singularthey, as in (13), ungrammatical or unfit for the job due to the ambiguity it can create in certain contexts.[35] Newpronouns such asve (used in science fiction) andze/hir have been proposed in order to avoid the perceived limitations of singularthey.[36] Currently, these new pronouns are only used by a small percentage of speakers while singularthey remains the most widely selected option.[37]
.jpg)
Generally speaking, there are three kinds ofantecedents with which the singularthey can be used.[38]
In examples (14-16), subscripti indicatescoreference; moreover, examples such as (15) and (16) are sometimes referred to as 'referential they'.[39][40]
(14) a.Anyonei who thinkstheyi need more time should ask for an extension.[38] b.The personi at the door left before I could see whotheyi were.[38]
(15) a.Kellyi saidtheyi were leaving early.[38] b.The strongest studenti will presenttheiri paper next.[38]
.jpg)
(16) a.Mariai wants to sendtheiri students on the field trip.[38] b. We heard fromArthuri thattheyi needed time to think about the idea.[38] c. We asked[the first girl in line]i to introducethemself/themselvesi.[38] d. Yourbrotheri called to saytheyi would be late.[38]
In the twenty-first century, syntactic research differentiates three groups of English speakers which can be identified, based on their judgments about pronoun usage for (14), (15) and (16).[30][38]
| Antecedent | Group A usage | Group B usage | Group C usage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quantified, or gender is unknown, (14) | yes | yes | yes |
| Nonbinary or ungendered, (15) | no | yes | yes |
| Any gender, (16) | no | no | yes |
A recent study by Kirby Conrod found these speaker groups to be correlated with age and gender identity.[39] Relative to age, participants of all ages accepted the usage in (14), whereas younger participants rated usage of referentialthey in (15) and (16) higher than did their older counterparts. Relative to gender identity, non-binary and transgender participants rated referentialthey higher than didcisgender participants. Elsewhere, cisgender speakers with at least one trans or non-binary family member have also been found to rate all three cases as acceptable.[38] Another study found a correlation between resistance to the second and third uses and prescriptivist attitudes about language.[41]
Work by Keir Moulton and colleagues, published in 2020, has also found that the presence of a linguisticantecedent — which is the case for examples (14), (15), and (16) — significantly improves the acceptability judgments of singularthey. In sentences with a linguistic antecedent, such as (17a), the use of singularthey is judged to be equally acceptable whether or not the hearer knows the (binary) gender of the referent. In sentences where singularthey is purelydeictic and has no linguistic antecedent, such as (17b), the use of singularthey is judged to be less acceptable than the use of a singular gendered pronoun (such as he or she) when the hearer knows the referent's (binary) gender. The authors suggest that the use of a gender-neutral antecedent (e.g. server or reporter) may signal the irrelevance of gender in the discourse context, making singularthey more acceptable. Additionally, having a linguististic antecedent clarified that the speaker was referring to a singular antecedent, rather than a plural one. In the deictic case, without a linguistic antecedent, these signals were not overt, and the speakers' judgment depended more on their experience with the pronoun itself.[40]
Type of antecedent affects acceptability of singulartheir (subscripti denotescoreference)[40]
(17) a.Thereporterisaid thattheiricellphone was recording the whole interview. Note: judged as more acceptable b.Theyisaid thattheiricellphone was recording the whole interview. Note: judged as less acceptable
Another study found an effect of social distance on speaker judgments of singular they use.[42] Usage was judged to be more acceptable when the speaker was not personally close with the referent, compared to use for referents with whom the speaker was personally close.[42] The authors suggested that, in the former case, the referent's gender may be less likely to be known or relevant.[42]
Forms of the pronounhe were used for both males and females during the Middle English and Modern English periods. Susanne Wagner observed that "There was rather an extended period of time in the history of the English language when the choice of a supposedly masculine personal pronoun (him) said nothing about thegender or sex of the referent."[43] An early example of prescribing the use ofhe to refer to a person of unknown gender is Anne Fisher's 1745 grammar bookA New Grammar.[44] Older editions ofFowler also took this view.[45] This usage continues to this day:
(18) a.The customer broughthis purchases to the cashier for checkout. b.In a supermarket,a customer can buy anythinghe needs. c.Whena customer argues, always agree withhim.
This may be compared to usage ofthe wordman for humans in general (although that was the original sense of the word "man" in theGermanic languages, much as the Latin word for "human in general",homo, came to mean "male human"—which wasvir, in Latin—in most of the Romance languages).
(19) a.Allmen are created equal.[a] b.Mancannot live by bread alone.[b]
The use, in formal English, ofhe,him orhis as a gender-neutral pronoun has traditionally been considered grammatically correct.[46] For example,William Safire in his "On Language" column inThe New York Times approved of the use of generiche, mentioning the mnemonic phrase "the male embraces the female".[47] A reader replied with an example of use of the gender-neutralhe, as in (20). Such examples point to the fact indiscriminate use of generiche leads to non-sensical violations of semantic gender agreement.[48]
(20) "The average American needs the small routines of getting ready for work.Ashe shaves or blow-drieshis hair or pulls onhis panty-hose,he is easinghimself by small stages into the demands of the day." (C. Badendyck,The New York Times (1985);[49] as quoted by Miller and Swift.[48])
The use of generiche has increasingly been a source of controversy, as it can be perceived as reflecting a positive bias towards men and a male-centric society, and a negative bias against women.[50] In some contexts, the use ofhe,him orhis as a gender-neutral pronoun may give a jarring or ridiculous impression:
(21) a. "...everyone will be able to decide forhimself whether or not to have an abortion." (Albert Bleumenthal, N.Y. State Assembly (cited in Longman 1984, as quoted inMerriam-Webster's Concise Dictionary of English Usage[51] b. "... the ideal thatevery boy and girl should be so equippedthathe shall not be handicapped inhis struggle for social progress..." (C. C. Fries,American English Grammar (1940), quoted inReader's Digest 1983; as cited inMerriam-Webster's Concise Dictionary of English Usage[51] c. "...She and Louis had a game—who could find the ugliest photograph ofhimself." (Joseph P. Lash,Eleanor and Franklin (1971), quoted inReader's Digest 1983; as cited inMerriam-Webster's Concise Dictionary of English Usage)[51]
The use of generiche has also been seen as prejudicial by some, as in the following cases:
Avoidance of the generiche is seen by proponents of non-sexist writing as indicating that the gender-neutralhe is in fact not gender-neutral since it "brings a male image to mind".[48]The same would apply to the genericshe, bringing a female image to mind.She has traditionally been used as a generic pronoun when making generalizations about people belonging to a group when most members of that group are assumed to be female:[48]
(22) a.A secretary should keepher temper in check. b.A nurse must always be kind toher patients.
The 19th and 20th centuries saw an upsurge in consciousness and advocacy ofgender equality, and this has led in particular to advocacy forgender-neutral language. In this context, the usage of generiche has declined in favor of other alternatives.[citation needed]
To disambiguate contexts where a referent encompasses both males and females,periphrasis is used. Though cumbersome, this solution is attested with the full range of English pronouns, include the subject pronounshe or she (23), the object pronounshim or her (24), the possessive pronounhis or hers (25), and the reflective pronounshimself or herself (26). In writing, these periphrastic forms are sometimes abbreviated tohe/she,(s)he,s/he,him/her,his/her,himself/herself andhers/his, but are not easily abbreviated in verbal communication.[53] With the exception of(s)he ands/he, a writer does in principle have the choice of which pronoun to place first. However, usage indicates that the masculine pronouns is most often mentioned first.
(23) a.Ifany employee needs to take time off,s/he should contact the Personnel Department.[53] b.Talk toyour doctor and see ifs/he knows of any local groups.[54] c.Each employee must sign the register whenshe/he enters or leaves.[55] d.Read to children and let them participate from time to time by telling them whatthey thinkthe author would add ifshe or he was present with them.[56]
(24) a.How often do you perform small acts of kindness foryour partner (like makinghim or her coffee in the morning)?.[57] b.Clearly, no one in the entire United States simply meetssomeone,talks withhim or her a while, and falls in love any more.[58]
(25) a.We must fight the tradition that forcesthe actor to accept povertyas a precondition ofhis or her profession.[56] b.Everyone will improve him/herself inhis/her area ...[59]
(26) a.... at the collegiate levelthe student must advocate forhimselforherself.[60] b....no student, of any background, should be expected at the outsetto recognizehim or herself in it.[61] c.Everyone will improvehim/herself in his/her area ...[59]
Some observers, such as the linguist James McCawley, suggest that the use of periphrastic forms may promote stereotypes: "he and she [can foster] the standard sexual stereotypes [in that] if you sayhe or she, you imply that women aren't included unless they are specifically mentioned, and you make it easier to talk about cases where only one sex is included than where both are."[62]
Authors sometimes employ rubrics[according to whom?] for selectingshe orhe such as:
Old English hadgrammatical gender, and thuscommonly used "it" for people, even where they were clearly female or male:
Over time, English gradually developed a system ofnatural gender (gender based on semantic meaning) which now holds sway inModern English.[64]
In Modern English, pronouns referring to adult humans are typically gendered: feminineshe, masculinehe. However, in some contexts, children may be referred to with the gender-neutral pronounit. When not referring specifically to children,it is not generally applied to people, even in cases where their gender is unknown.
The 1985 edition of the Quirk et al. grammar observes that whereashe andshe are used for entities treated as people (including anthropomorphized entities), the pronounit is normally used for entities not regarded as persons. But the pronounit can be used of children in some circumstances, for instance when the sex is indefinite or when the writer has no emotional connection to the child, as in a scientific context lsuch as (26). According toThe Handbook of Non-Sexist Writing (1995),it is also sometimes the "obvious" choice for children. Examples given include (27a), and the more colloquial (27b).It may even be used when the child's sex is known: In the passage given in (27c), the characters refer to the boy-child at the center of the narrative as ahe, but then the narrator refers to it as anit. In this case, the child has yet to be developed into a character that can communicate with the reader.
(27) a. Achild learns to speak the language ofits environment. (Quirk et al.,A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (1985), p. 316–317, 342) b. To society, ababy's sex is second in importance toits health. (Miller & Swift,The Handbook of Non-Sexist Writing (1995), p. 58) c. "He looks like nobody buthimself," said Mrs. Owens, firmly. ... It was then that ... the child openedits eyes wide in wakefulness.It stared aroundit ... (Neil Gaiman,The Graveyard Book (2008), p. 25)
The Quirk et al. 1985 grammar states that the use of genderedhe orshe is optional for non-human animals of known sex.[65] It gives the following example, which illustrates the use of both the gender-neutral possessiveits and the gendered possessiveher to refer to a bird:
(28)The robin buildsits nest in a well-chosen position ...and, after the eggs have hatched, the mother bird feedsher young there for several weeks ... (Quirk et al., A comprehensive grammar of the English language (1985), p. 316–317, 342)
Another gender-neutral pronoun that can be used to refer to people is theimpersonal pronoun,one. This can be used in conjunction with thegeneriche according to the preference and style of the writer.
Incolloquial speech,genericyou is often used instead ofone:
Historically, there were two gender-neutral pronouns native to English dialects,ou and(h)a.[66] According toDennis Baron'sGrammar and Gender:[67]
In 1789, William H. Marshall records the existence of a dialectal Englishepicene pronoun, singular "ou":"'Ou will' expresses eitherhe will,she will, orit will." Marshall traces "ou" to Middle English epicene "a", used by the 14th century English writer John of Trevisa, and both the OED and Wright'sEnglish Dialect Dictionary confirm the use of "a" forhe,she,it,they, and evenI. This "a" is a reduced form of theAnglo-Saxonhe = "he" andheo = "she".
Relics of these gender-neutral terms survive in some British dialects of Modern English — for examplehoo for 'she', in Yorkshire — and sometimes a pronoun of one gender can be applied to a human or non-human animal of the opposite gender.
Since at least the 19th century, numerous proposals for the use of other non-standard gender-neutral pronouns have been introduced:
| This sectionneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.(May 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Source | Nominative (subject) | Oblique (object) | Independent genitive (possessive) | Dependent genitive (possessive) | Reflexive | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard pronoun usage | ||||||
| he | he is laughing | I calledhim | his eyes gleam | that ishis | he likeshimself | |
| she | she is laughing | I calledher | her eyes gleam | that ishers | she likesherself | |
| they (singular) | they are laughing | I calledthem | their eyes gleam | that istheirs | they likethemself | |
| it | it is laughing | I calledit | its eyes gleam | that isits | it likesitself | |
| one | one is laughing | I calledone | one's eyes gleam | that isone's | one likesoneself | |
| they (plural) | they are laughing | I calledthem | their eyes gleam | that istheirs | they likethemselves | |
| 'em | – | I called'em | – | – | – | |
| Orthographic conventions for gender-neutral pronouns | ||||||
| she/he | she/he is laughing | I calledhim/her | her/his eyes gleam | that ishis/hers | she/he likesher/himself | |
| s/he | s/he is laughing | I calledhim/r[citation needed] | her/is eyes gleam | that ishers/is | s/he likesher/himself | |
| Artificial and proposed epicene pronouns | ||||||
| e | Brewster, 1841[74] | e is laughing | I calledem | es eyes gleam | that ises | e likesemself |
| thon | Converse, 1884[89] | thon is laughing | I calledthon | thons eyes gleam | that isthons | thon likesthonself |
| e | Rogers, 1890[90] | e is laughing | I calledem | es eyes gleam | that ises | e likesemself |
| ae | Lindsay, 1920[citation needed] | ae is laughing | I calledaer | aer eyes gleam | that isaers | ae likesaerself |
| tey | Miller andSwift, 1971[91] | tey is laughing | I calledtem | ter eyes gleam | that isters | tey likestemself |
| xe | Rickter,c. 1973[92] | xe is laughing | I calledxem/xim | xyr/xis eyes gleam | that isxyrs/xis | xe likesxemself/ximself |
| te | Farrel, 1974[93] | te is laughing | I calledtir | tes eyes gleam | that istes | te likestirself |
| ey | Elverson, 1975[94] | ey is laughing | I calledem | eir eyes gleam | that iseirs | ey likesemself |
| per | Piercy, 1979[95] | per is laughing | I calledper | pers eyes gleam | that ispers | per likesperself |
| ve | Hulme,c. 1980[96] | ve is laughing | I calledver | vis eyes gleam | that isvis | ve likesverself |
| hu | Newborn, 1982[97][not specific enough to verify] | hu is laughing | I calledhum | hus eyes gleam | that ishus | hu likeshumself |
| E | Spivak, 1983[98][99][100] | e is laughing | I calledem | eir eyes gleam | that iseirs | e likesemself |
| hes | Ching Hai, 1989[101] | hes is laughing | I calledhirm | hiers eyes gleam | that ishiers | hes likeshirmself |
| ze, mer | Creel, 1997[102] | ze is laughing | I calledmer | zer eyes gleam | that iszers | ze likeszemself |
| ze, hir | Bornstein, 1998[103] | ze is laughing | I calledhir | hir eyes gleam | that ishirs | ze likeshirself |
| sie, hir | Hyde, 2001[104] | sie is laughing | I calledhir | hir eyes gleam | that ishirs | sie likeshirself |
| sey, seir, sem | Rogerson, 2013[105] | sey is laughing | I calledsem | seir eyes gleam | that isseirs | sey likessemself |
| fae[106][107] | fae is laughing | I calledfaer | faer eyes gleam | that isfaers | fae likesfaerself | |
| eh | Steinbach, 2018[108][109] | eh is laughing | I calledehm | ehs eyes gleam | that isehs | eh likesehmself |
| thay | Gori Suture, 2022[110][111] | thay are laughing | I calledthym | thayr eyes gleam | that isthayrs | thay likethymself |
In 2021, the dictionaryLe Petit Robert de la Langue Française added a third-person gender neutral pronoun to its lexicon:iel[112] (pluraliels). AlthoughPetit Robert has addediel, there is no discussion in its entry regarding how the language, which uses a grammatical gender system in which every content word has a gender, should proceed with agreement.[113]
As reported in theNew York Times, this merger of the third person masculine pronounil 'he' and the third person feminine pronounelle 'she' is used to refer to a person of any gender. It has caused controversy amongst both linguists and politicians who claim that the French language cannot be manipulated.[114] The dictionary takes the position that it is observing how the French language evolves, adding it as a point of reference. However, theLarousse (a prominent encyclopedia of the French language) disagrees, callingiel a "pseudo pronoun".[114]
ThePolish language does not have officially recognized and standardized gender-neutral pronoun. The most popularneopronoun, created to address nonbinary people, isonu. It was originally created by science fiction and fantasy writerJacek Dukaj, for his 2004 bookPerfect Imperfection. From the surname of the author, this, and similar neopronouns created by him, are referred to asdukaisms (dukaizmy), and after term coined by him, the post-gender pronouns (Polish:zaimki postpłciowe).[115][116][117][118]
Some nonbinary Polish-speakers also useono, which corresponds to the Englishit.[119][120] The use ofono as a gender-neutral pronoun was recommended in a grammar book in 1823.[121]
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | onu | ony |
| genitive | jenu / nu / nienu | ich / ich / nich |
| dative | wu | im |
| accusative | nu | ni |
| instrumental | num | nimi |
| locative | num | nich |
| [115][116] | ||
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| first person | -um | –ałuśmy |
| second person | –uś | –ałuście |
| third person | –u | –ły |
| adjectives | –u | -y |
| [115][116] | ||
TheSwedish language has a four-gender distinction for definite singular third-person pronouns:
Theindefinite/impersonal third person is gender-neutral, as is the plural third person:
As for first-person and second-person pronouns, they are gender-neutral in both the singular and plural
On nouns, the neuter gender is marked by the definite singular suffixal article -t, whereas common gender is marked with the suffix with -n. The same distinction applies to the indefinite adjectival singular forms. For people and animals with specified gender, the masculine or feminine pronouns are used, but the nouns still take either neutral or common articles. There is no gender distinction in the plural.
In Swedish, the wordhen was introduced generally in the 2000s as a complement to the gender-specifichon ("she") andhan ("he"). It can be used when the gender of a person is not known or when it is not desirable to specify them as either a "she" or "he". The word was proposed byRolf Dunås in 1966 and could be used occasionally, like in a guideline from the Swedish building council from 1980, authored byRolf Reimers. Its origin may have been a combination ofhan andhon.
It was proposed again in 1994, with reference to the Finnishhän, similarly pronounced, apersonal pronoun that is gender-neutral, sinceFinnish completely lacksgrammatical gender. In 2009 it was included inNationalencyklopedin. However, it did not receive widespread recognition until around 2010, when it began to be used in some texts, and provoked some media debates and controversy, but is included since 2015 inSvenska Akademiens ordlista, the most authoritativespelling dictionary of the Swedish language, by theSwedish Academy.[122]
As of 2016[update], Swedishmanuals of style treathen as aneologism. Major newspapers likeDagens Nyheter have recommended against its usage, though some journalists still use it. TheSwedish Language Council has not issued any general recommendations against the use ofhen, but advises against the use of the object formhenom ("her/him"); it instead recommends usinghen as both the subject and object form.Hen has two basic usages: as a way to avoid a stated preference to either gender; or as a way of referring to individuals who aretransgender, who prefer to identify themselves as belonging to athird gender or who reject the division of male/female gender roles on ideological grounds. Its entry will cover two definitions: as a reference to an individual's belonging to a third gender, or where the sex is not specified.[122]
Traditionally, Swedish offers other ways of avoiding using gender-specific pronouns; e.g., "vederbörande" ("the referred person") and "man" ("one", as in "Man borde ..."/"One should ...") with its objective form "en" or alternatively "en" as both subjective and objective since "man"/"one" sounds the same as "man"/"male adult" although they are discernible through syntax. "Denna/Denne" ("this one or she/he") may refer to a non-gender-specific referent already or soon-to-be mentioned ("Vederbörande kan, om denne så vill, ..."/"The referent may, if he wishes, ..."). Because "denne" is objectively masculine, the use of the word to refer to anyone irrespective of gender is not recommended. One method is rewriting into the plural, as Swedish – like English – has only gender-neutral pronouns in the plural. Another method is writing the pronoun in the referent's grammatical gender ("Barnet får omdet vill."/"The child is allowed to, ifit wants to." The word "barn"/child is grammatically neuter, thus the use of the third-person neuter pronoun "det"); some nouns retain their traditional pronouns, e.g., "man"/"man" uses "han"/"he", and "kvinna"/"woman" uses "hon"/"she". While grammatically correct, using "den/det" to refer to human beings may sound as if the speaker regards the referenced human beings as objects, so "han"/"hon" is preferred, for example about children or work titles such as "föraren" ("driver") or "rörmokaren" ("plumber").
| This sectionneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.(May 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
As a continuation of earlier discussions along the same lines as well as the continuing uptake, theLanguage Council of Norway proposes the gender-neutral pronounhen (from Swedishhen; compare Finnishhän) to be recognised officially.[123]
Previously, the gender-neutral pronounhin has been proposed to fill the gap between the third person pronounshun ('she') andhan ('he').[citation needed] However, the usage ofhin has not widely embraced, as it is rarely used, and even then only by limited special interest groups.[citation needed] A reason for the marginal interest in a neuter gender word is the constructed nature of the word, together with the fact that the word is homonymous with several older words both in official language and dialectal speech, such ashin ('the other') andhinsides ('beyond').[citation needed] One can also useman oren orden (en means 'one'). These three are consideredimpersonal.[citation needed]
AmongstLGBT interest groups the wordhen is now in use after the Swedish implementation in 2010.[124][failed verification]
English-language neopronouns are being translated intoArabic, such as "ze" (Arabic:زي).[125] Another neopronoun is "huomin" (Arabic:همنّ) a unified pronoun, used in case the gender of the person being spoken to or about is unknown or as a singular pronoun for non-binary people, akin to a singular "they".[126]
An example of neopronoun in German is "dey", influenced by English they.[127][128]
Traditionally, the third person pronoun in Mandarin is gender-neutral. In spokenstandard Mandarin, there is no gender distinction in personal pronouns:tā can mean 'he' or 'she' (or even 'it' for non-human objects). Although it is claimed that when the antecedent of the spoken pronountā is unclear, native speakers assume it is a male person,[129] no evidence is given to support this claim. Many studies instead demonstrate the opposite: Mandarin speakers do not differentiate pronoun genders in the composition of the preverbal message that guides grammatical encoding during language production.[130] Even proficient bilingual Mandarin-English learners do not process gender information in the conceptualizer.[131] As a result, Mandarin speakers often mix up the gendered pronouns of European languages in speech.[132] Even if they seldom make other types of errors, native Mandarin speakers can make such pronoun errors when speaking in English. This is even the case after they have been living in an immersive environment and after having attained a relatively high English level.[133]
Although spoken Mandarin remains ungendered, a specific written form for 'she' (她tā) was created in the early twentieth century under the influence of European languages. In today's written Chinese, the same sound is written with different characters:他 (tā) for 'he',她 (tā) for 'she' and它 (tā) for 'it'. However, such distinction did not exist before the late 1910s. There was only他 (tā) as a general third person pronoun (he/she/it'), which did not specify gender or humanness.
In 1917, the influential poet and linguistLiu Bannong borrowed theOld Chinese graph她 (tā, with theradicalnǚ女 which means 'female') into the written language to specifically represent 'she'. As a result, the old character他 (tā), which previously could also refer to females, has become sometimes restricted to meaning 'he' only in written texts. The character他 has theradicalrén (人) with means 'human', which also shows it originally was a generic term for people in general instead of a term for males, which should take theradical for male,nán (男), like other Chinese characters that represent specifically male concepts.[134]
The creation of gendered pronouns in Chinese orthography was part of theMay Fourth Movement to modernize Chinese culture, and specifically an attempt to assert sameness between Chinese and European languages, which generally have gendered pronouns.[129] The leaders of the movement also coined other characters, such as它 for objects,牠 (radical:niú牛, "cow") for animals, and祂 (radical:shì示, 'spirit') for gods. Their pronunciations were alltā. The latter two have fallen out of use in mainland China.
Liu and other writers of that period tried to popularize a different pronunciation for the feminine pronoun, includingyi from theWu dialect andtuo from aliterary reading, but these efforts failed, and all forms of the third-person pronoun retain identical pronunciation. (This situation of identical pronunciation with split characters is present not only in Mandarin but also in many othervarieties of Chinese.[134])
TheCantonese third-person-singular pronoun iskeui5 (佢), and may refer to people of any gender. For a specifically female pronoun, some writers replace the person radicalrén (亻) with the female radicalnǚ (女), forming the characterkeui5 (姖). However, this analogous variation totā is neither widely accepted in standardwritten Cantonese nor grammatically or semantically required. Moreover, while the characterkeui5 (佢) has no meaning in classical Chinese, the characterkeui5 (姖) has a separate meaning unrelated to its dialectic use in standard or classical Chinese.[135]
As of 2013, there is a recent trend on the Internet for people to write "TA" inLatin script, derived from thepinyin romanization of Chinese, as a gender-neutral pronoun.[136][137]
For second-person pronouns,你 (nǐ) is used for both genders. In addition, the character妳 (nǐ) has sometimes been used as a female second-person pronoun in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Purepersonal pronouns do not exist in traditionalJapanese, aspronouns are generally dropped. In addition, reference to a person is using their name with a suffix such as the gender-neutralsan added to it. For example:
'She (Ms. Saitō) came' would be斎藤さんが来ました (Saitō-san ga kimashita).
In modern Japanese,kare (彼) is the male andkanojo (彼女) the female third-person pronouns. Historically,kare was a word in the demonstrative paradigm (i.e., a system involving demonstrative prefixes,ko-,so-,a- (historical:ka-), anddo-), used to point to an object that is physically far but psychologically near. The feminine counterpartkanojo, on the other hand, is a combination ofkano (adnominal (rentaishi) version ofka-) andjo ('woman'), coined for the translation of its Western equivalents. It was not until theMeiji period thatkare andkanojo were commonly used as the masculine and feminine pronoun in the same way as their Western equivalents. Although their usage as the Western equivalent pronouns tends to be infrequent—because pronouns tend to be dropped—kare-shi andkanojo are commonly used today to mean 'boyfriend' and 'girlfriend' respectively.[138]
First-person pronouns,ore,boku, andatashi, while not explicitly carrying gender, can strongly imply gender based on inherent levels of politeness or formality as well as hierarchical connotations.[139] Whileboku andore are traditionally characterized as masculine pronouns,atashi is characterized as feminine. In addition, of the two masculine-leaning pronouns,boku is considered to be less masculine thanore and often connote a softer form of masculinity. When wishing to connote a sense of authority and confidence to their interlocutors, male speakers tend to use the first-person formore.[139]
Use the pronoun preferred by the individuals who have acquired the physical characteristics of the opposite sex or present themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex at birth.
Use the pronoun preferred by the individuals who have acquired the physical characteristics of the opposite sex or present themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex at birth. If that preference is not expressed, use the pronoun consistent with the way the individuals live publicly.
Use the pronoun that matches the person's gender identity
If you are not sure which pronoun to use, you can ask the patient
listen to your clients – what terms do they use to describe themselves .... Pronoun preference typically varies, including alternately using male or female pronouns using the pronoun that matches the gender presentation at that time.
honor the set of pronouns that clients select and use them throughout the counseling process
Use the correct name and pronoun – Most names and pronouns are gendered. It's important to be considerate of one's gender identity by using the pronouns of the respective gender pronouns [sic], or gender-neutral pronouns, they use
Use whatever name and gender pronoun the person prefers
should be identified with their preferred pronoun
It is usually best to report on transgender people's stories from the present day instead of narrating them from some point or multiple points in the past, thus avoiding confusion and potentially disrespectful use of incorrect pronouns.
our pronounthey was originally borrowed into English from the Scandinavian language family ... and since then has been doing useful service in English as the morphosyntactically plural but singular-antecedent-permitting gender-neutral pronoun known to linguists as singularthey
{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help)others – all pronounced tā – are now being replaced by the actual letters 'ta'!
| Overview |  | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Identity | |||||||||
| Gender in language | |||||||||
| Gender inequality |
| ||||||||
| Academia |
| ||||||||
| Religion | |||||||||
