Third person gender neutral pronoun

Guest   Mon Aug 06, 2007 2:22 am GMT
Here are some ideas for a third person gender neutral pronoun.

{| cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" border="1" valign="top" align="center"
|-
| || [[Nominative case|Nominative (subject)]] || [[Accusative case|Accusative (object)]] || [[Possessive adjective]] || [[Possessive pronoun]] || [[Reflexive pronoun|Reflexive]]
|-
|'''[[Spivak pronoun|Spivak (new)]]''' || ''Ey'' laughed || I kissed ''em'' || ''Eir'' head hurts || I am ''eirs'' || E feeds ''emself''
|-
|'''[[Spivak pronoun|Spivak (old) ]]''' || ''E'' laughed || I kissed ''em'' || ''Eir'' head hurts || I am ''eirs'' || E feeds ''eirself''
|-
|'''Sie and hir'''<ref>First recorded use on usenet: {{cite newsgroup
| title =receptors
| author =Chip Hitchcock
| date =1981-05-26
| newsgroup = fa.sf-lovers
| url =http://groups.google.com/group/fa.sf-lovers/msg/b98bd808f4ba41bc?output=gplain
| accessdate = 2007-01-01 }}</ref> || ''Sie'' laughed || I kissed ''hir'' || ''Hir'' head hurts || I am ''hirs'' || Sie feeds ''hirself''
|-
|'''Xe'''<ref>[http://www.autistics.org/library/AE2000-ToM.html A discussion about theory of Mind]: a paper from 2000 that uses and defines these pronouns''</ref> || ''[[wikt:xe|Xe]]'' laughed || I kissed ''[[wikt:xem|xem]]'' || ''[[wikt:xyr|Xyr]]'' head hurts || I am ''[[wikt:xyrs|xyrs]]'' || Xe feeds ''[[wikt:xemself|xemself]]''
|-
|'''Ve'''<ref>Proposed by New Zealand writer [[Keri Hulme]] some time in the 1980s. Also used by writer [[Greg Egan]] for non-gendered [[artificial intelligence]]s and "[[asexuality|asex]]" humans.
<br>
{{cite book
| last = Egan
| first = Greg
| authorlink = Greg Egan
| title = [[Diaspora (novel)|Diaspora]]
| publisher = [[Gollancz]]
| date = July 1998
| url = http://gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au/DIASPORA/01/Orphanogenesis.html
| id = ISBN 0-75280-925-3 }}
<br>
{{cite book
| last = Egan
| first = Greg
| authorlink = Greg Egan
| title = [[Distress (novel)|Distress]]
| id = ISBN 1-85799-484-1 }}
</ref> || ''Ve'' laughed || I kissed ''ver'' || ''Vis'' head hurts || I am ''vis'' || Ve feeds ''verself''
|-
|'''Ze and mer'''<ref>{{cite web
| last =Creel
| first =Richard
| year = 1997
| url =http://www.apa.udel.edu/apa/archive/newsletters/v97n1/teaching/ze.asp
| title =Ze, Zer, Mer
| work =APA Newsletters
| publisher =The American Philosophical Association
| language =English
| accessdate =2006-05-15
| accessyear =
}}</ref> || ''Ze'' laughed || I kissed ''mer'' || ''Zer'' head hurts || I am ''zer'' || Ze feeds ''zemself''
|-
|'''Ze and hir'''<ref>Example:
<br>
{{cite book
| last = Bornstein
| first = Kate
| authorlink = Kate Bornstein
| title = My Gender Workbook
| id = ISBN 0-41591-673-9 }}</ref> || ''Ze'' laughed || I kissed ''hir'' || ''Hir'' head hurts || I am ''hirs'' || Ze feeds ''hirself''
|-
|'''Zie''' || ''Zie'' laughed || I kissed ''zir'' || ''Zir'' head hurts || I am ''zirs'' || Zie feeds ''zirself''
|-
|'''E''' || ''E'' laughed || I kissed ''het'' || ''Het'' head hurts || I am ''hets'' || E feeds ''hetself''
|-
|'''Thon'''<ref>proposed in 1884 by American lawyer Charles Converse. Reference: {{cite web |url=http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19980812 |title=Epicene |accessdate=2006-12-20 |date=[[1998-08-12]] |work=The Mavens' Word of the Day |publisher=[[Random House]] }}</ref> || ''Thon'' laughed || I kissed ''thon'' || ''Thons'' head hurts || I am ''thon's'' || Thon feeds ''thonself''
|-
|'''Hu''' || ''Hu'' laughed || I kissed ''hu'' || ''Hu's'' head hurts || I am ''hu's'' || Hu feeds ''huself''
|-
|'''Hesh''' || ''Hesh'' laughed || I kissed ''hesh'' || ''Hesh's'' head hurts || I am ''hesh's'' || Hesh feeds ''heshself''
|-
|'''Ne''' || ''Ne'' laughed || I kissed ''nim'' || ''nis'' head hurts || I am ''nis'' || Nis feeds ''nimself''
|-
|'''Hiser''' || ''Ne'' laughed || I kissed ''nim'' || ''nis'' head hurts || I am ''nis'' || Nis feeds ''nimself''
|-
|'''En''' || ''En'' laughed || I kissed ''en'' || ''Ens'' head hurts || I am ''en'' || En feeds ''enself''
|-
|'''Hi''' || ''Hi'' laughed || I kissed ''hem'' || ''Hes'' head hurts || I am ''hes'' || Hi feeds ''hemself''
|-
|'''Le''' || ''Le'' laughed || I kissed ''lim'' || ''Lis'' head hurts || I am ''lis'' || Le feeds ''limself''
|-
|'''Himer''' || ''Himer'' laughed || I kissed ''himer'' || ''Himer's'' head hurts || I am ''Himers'' || Le feeds ''himerself''
|-
|'''Ir''' || ''Ir'' laughed || I kissed ''iro'' || ''Irs'' head hurts || I am ''irs'' || Le feeds ''irself''
|-
|'''Se''' || ''Se'' laughed || I kissed ''sim'' || ''sis'' head hurts || I am ''sis'' || se feeds ''simself''
|-
|'''Hse''' || ''Hse'' laughed || I kissed ''Hse'' || ''Hse's'' head hurts || I am ''hse's'' || Hse feeds ''hseself''
|-
|'''Co''' || ''Co'' laughed || I kissed ''co'' || ''Cos'' head hurts || I am ''cos'' || Co feeds ''coself''
|-
|'''Ve''' || ''Ve'' laughed || I kissed ''ver'' || ''Vis'' head hurts || I am ''vis'' || Ve feeds ''verself''
|-
|'''tey''' || ''Tey'' laughed || I kissed ''tem'' || ''Term'' head hurts || I am ''terms'' || Term feeds ''termself''
|-
|'''Ze''' || ''Ze'' laughed || I kissed ''zim'' || ''Zees'' head hurts || I am ''zees'' || Ze feeds ''Zeeself''
|-
|'''Per''' || ''Per'' laughed || I kissed ''per'' || ''Pers'' head hurts || I am ''pers'' || Per feeds ''perself''
|-
|'''Na''' || ''Na'' laughed || I kissed ''nan'' || ''Nas'' head hurts || I am ''nas'' || Na feeds ''naself''
|-
|'''En''' || ''En'' laughed || I kissed ''ar'' || ''Es'' head hurts || I am ''es'' || En feeds ''arself''
|-
|'''Ey''' || ''Ey'' laughed || I kissed ''em'' || ''Eir'' head hurts || I am ''eirs'' || Ey feeds ''emself''
|-
|'''Rim''' || ''Rim'' laughed || I kissed ''run'' || ''Ris'' head hurts || I am ''ris'' | Rim feeds ''rimself''.
|-
|'''Ae''' || ''Ae'' laughed || I kissed ''ae'' || ''Ae's'' head hurts || I am ''ae's'' || Ae feeds ''aeself''
|-
|'''Et''' || ''Et'' laughed || I kissed ''et'' || ''Ets'' head hurts || I am ''ets'' || Et feeds ''etself''
|-
|'''Heshe''' || ''Heshe'' laughed || I kissed ''hen'' || ''Hes'' head hurts || I am ''hes'' || Heshe feeds ''hemself''
|-
|'''Hann''' || ''Hann'' laughed || I kissed ''hann'' || ''Hanns'' head hurts || I am ''hanns'' || Hann feeds ''hannself''
|-
|'''Herm''' || ''Herm'' laughed || I kissed ''herm'' || ''Herm's'' head hurts || I am ''herm's'' || Herm feeds ''hermself''
|-
|}
Lazar   Mon Aug 06, 2007 3:04 am GMT
This issue has already been raised many times on Antimoon. English already has a third person singular gender-neutral pronoun - singular "they" - which has been in widespread use for centuries, so I don't think there's any need to invent a new one.
furrykef   Mon Aug 06, 2007 6:52 am GMT
You can't paste tables in here like that. In fact, you can't paste anything that has any sort of formatting at all and expect the formatting to come out right.

- Kef
Guest   Mon Aug 06, 2007 1:02 pm GMT
<<''Sie'' laughed || I kissed ''hir'' || ''Hir'' head hurts || I am ''hirs'' || Sie feeds ''hirself''>>

Um, these are certainly not gender-neutral. "Sie" is the German word for "she". And "hir" only works in writing, with it sounding exactly like "her" in speech. Sigh!
Guest   Mon Aug 06, 2007 3:31 pm GMT
Don't worry -- I suspect that none of these proposed words will replace "they", "their", "theirs", "them", etc.