Gender-neutral pronoun

A gender-neutral pronoun is a pronoun that is not associated with any gender. It designates two distinct grammatical phenomena, the first being pronouns/periphrastics that have been assigned nontraditional meanings in modern times out of a concern for gender equity, and the second being genderless pronouns that occur traditionally in human languages.

In some languages — notably most Indo-European, Afro-Asiatic and a number of Niger–Congo languages — some personal pronouns intrinsically distinguish male from female; the selection of a pronoun necessarily specifies, at least to some extent, the gender of what is referred. Traditionally, the masculine form has been taken to be the markless form, that is the form to be used unless it is known to be inappropriate. This has dictated the masculine pronoun in cases such as

• reference to an indefinite person, for example: "If anybody comes, tell him"
• reference to a group containing men and women, for example French: Vos parents sont arrivés — ils étaient en avance. ("Your parents have arrived — they were early") uses the French masculine plural pronoun "ils" instead of the feminine "elles" but in English both translate to "they".

Since as early as 1795,^[1] this property has led to the call for gender-neutral pronouns. The Sapir–Whorf hypothesis is a common justification, in addition to humanist and pluralistic reasons, for applying gender-neutral pronouns to the English language. Attempts to invent pronouns for this purpose date back at least to 1850.^[1]

Many languages allow the speaker to specify whether one is talking about a male or female, but some languages do not require the speaker to make that choice as an intrinsic part of the language.^[2] In some languages, pronouns do not distinguish between genders, so gender equity of pronouns is not relevant. This category includes many East Asian languages (see below) as well as the Uralic languages.

Armenian

Armenian, an Indo-European language, has gender-neutral pronouns.

Bengali

Despite the fact that it possesses a very large and complex pronominal system, Standard Bengali makes no difference in gender in any of its pronouns. Pronouns are differentiated in terms of person, number, social relationship (intimate vs. familiar vs. formal), and proximity to the speaker (proximal vs. distal vs. non-present).

Chinese

Mandarin

In modern Mandarin Chinese, there is no gender distinction in pronouns in the spoken language: the pronoun 他 (tā) means he, she, or it. However, around the time of the May Fourth Movement, the new written form 她, as a pronoun, was created to specifically represent she, and 他 is now sometimes restricted to meaning he. This language reform was part of a modernization movement, which copied from European languages. In writing, 他/她 is used to mean he/she (respectively), 它 (tā) to mean it (objects), 牠 (tā) to refer to animals, and 祂 (tā) to denote gods. These pronouns are pronounced identically; the difference appears only in writing. The usage of all of these variations is not officially condoned by education authorities in Chinese-speaking countries, and these variations are typically not taught in school. Some traditionalists consider these pronouns as neologisms, but most accept both its usage and non-usage as correct.

With the exception of 它, each of these pronouns is formed from a radical that indicates the nature of its object. 他 is formed from 人 (rén), meaning person; 她 is formed from 女 (nǚ), meaning woman; 牠 is formed from 牛 (niú), meaning cow; and 祂 is formed from 示 (shì), meaning revelation. 他 is considered to be properly generic; an antonym to 她 would be formed using the radical for male, 男 (nán), and not that for person, 人 (rén). At present, a specifically male pronoun formed from 男 and 也 is not in use.

There is a recent trend on the Internet for people to write "TA" (Latin letters T and A, derived from the pinyin of 他/她) as a gender-neutral pronoun.^[3]

Cantonese

The Cantonese third person singular pronoun is keui⁵. In written Cantonese, the character most commonly used to record this is 佢; it may be used to refer to people of either gender. The practice of replacing the "亻" radical with "女" (forming the character 姖) to specifically indicate the female gender may also be seen occasionally in informal writing; however, this is neither widely accepted nor grammatically or semantically required, and, unlike 佢, the character 姖 has a separate meaning in standard Chinese.^[4]

English

Middle English

Historically, there were two gender neutral pronouns native to English dialects, "ou" and "a", but they have long since died out. According to Dennis Baron's Grammar and Gender:

In 1789, William H. Marshall records the existence of a dialectal English epicene pronoun, singular "ou": "'Ou will' expresses either he will, she will, or it 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'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"

—Dennis Baron, Grammar and Gender^[5]

Baron goes on to describe how relics of these sex-neutral terms survive in some British dialects of Modern English (for example "hoo" for "she", in Yorkshire), and sometimes a pronoun of one gender might be applied to a person or animal of the opposite gender.

Modern English

It

"It" (including "its" and "itself") is the most common and only third person, singular English gender-neutral pronoun; however, it is used only as a dummy pronoun in various impersonal constructions and to refer to abstractions, places, inanimate objects or materials, and non-human life of low order or unknown gender. The plural of "it"—"they"— is already used in all cases as a plural gender-neutral pronoun. The word "it", however, has an extremely impersonal connotation, even offensive, in common usage and is rarely used in English to refer to an unspecified human being or person of unknown gender. This is because the word "it" connotes that the person being specified is inferior to a person or is an object.

Problems

The gender specificity of English pronouns may, arguably, create potential problems:

• Gender bias can be interjected into language, and biased gender roles may be interjected into language. For example it is common to use the pronoun he if gender is unknown.
• A speaker may wish to mask the gender of the person being discussed, e.g., to avoid indicating whether a romantic partner is male or female (see pronoun game).
• A speaker may not know the referent's gender, and implying one may be misleading or otherwise inappropriate.
• A speaker may be referring to any hypothetical individual. In casual speech, "they" is often used, but in written works this may not be acceptable, due to its plurality. "One" may be used instead (see below), but is often considered overly bombastic.
• A speaker may be discussing someone who is arguably described poorly (or not at all) by the gender categories associated with "he" and "she," as in the case of a referent who identifies as genderqueer.

Legal controversy

Governments, clubs, and other groups have interpreted sentences like "every member must take off his shoes before entering the chapel" to mean that therefore female members may not enter the chapel. The Persons Case, the legal battle over whether Canadian women counted as legal persons eligible to sit in the Senate, partially turned on such a point.^[6]

By contrast, the Constitution of Ireland describes the President of Ireland throughout as "he", yet the two most recent presidents were women; in 1997, four of the five candidates in the election were women. Efforts in a court case to argue that "he" excluded women were dismissed by the Irish Supreme Court, which ruled the term "gender-neutral". (The Constitution's primary version is in Irish, where the male pronoun sé is considered gender-neutral.)

Historical solutions

Universal "he"

The use of "he" to refer to a person of unknown gender was prescribed by manuals of style and school textbooks from the early 18th century until around the 1960s, an early example of which is Anne Fisher's 1745 grammar book "A New Grammar".^[7]

• The customer brought his purchases to the cashier for checkout.
• In a supermarket, anyone can buy anything he needs.
• When a customer argues, always agree with him.

This may be compared to usage of the word man to humans in general.

• "All men are created equal."
• "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."
• "Man cannot live by bread alone."

Gender-specific pronouns were also prescribed when one might presume that most members of some group are the same gender (although in recent times, such presumptions are seen as offensive).

• A secretary should keep her temper in check.
• A janitor should respect and listen to his employers.
• Every plumber has his own tools.
• An OB/GYN must always be kind to her patients.

The use of "he", "him" or "his" to be used as a gender-neutral pronoun, however, is today seen by some as prejudicial.

Some authors though, turn the convention of the "universal he" upon its head and instead use "she" as referring to a subject of unknown gender. For example, Shafi Goldwasser, a noted female computer scientist—computer science being a field largely dominated by men—uses the pronoun "she" exclusively in her Lecture Notes on Cryptography in reference to cryptographic adversaries.^[8]

Singular "they"

Since at least the 15th century, "they" (though, as with singular "you", used with verbs conjugated in the plural, not the singular), "them", "themself", "themselves", and "their" have been used, in an increasingly more accepted fashion, as singular pronouns. This usage of the word "they" is often thus called the singular "they". The singular "they" is widely used and accepted in Britain, Australia, and North America in conversation and in writing. It is important to note that this is not recognized by the SATs and other standardized tests. Many of the older examples include "each" or "every" or similar, causing mental admixture with genuine plural.

• I say to each person in this room: may they enjoy themselves tonight!
• Anyone who arrives at the door can let themself in using this key.
• Eche of theym sholde ... make theymselfe redy. — Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon (c. 1489)

In modern colloquial speech, sometimes "they" is used even when the gender of the subject is obvious; because, in this case, it is believed that unless the referent is a specific person, then the pronoun "they" should be used:

• If some guy beat me up, then I'd leave them.
• Every bride hopes that their wedding day will go as planned.

"One"

Some sentences can be rephrased to use the impersonal pronoun "one". However, in most informal contexts this usage of "one" is becoming increasingly uncommon, and being replaced by an impersonal usage of "you". Compare:

• Each student should save his questions until the end.
• One should save one's questions until the end.
• You should save your questions until the end.

Modern solutions

It is contended that none of the traditional options is completely satisfactory except perhaps "they", though some linguists feel that it is irregular since it derives from a plural form. The universal "he" in particular has been a source of controversy. The 19th and 20th centuries saw an upsurge in consciousness and advocacy of gender equity. In that context, the traditional use of the universal "he" appears biased toward men and against women. More gender-equitable suggestions have therefore been introduced.

"(S)he"

The periphrastics "she or he", "him or her", "his or her", "his or hers", "himself or herself" are seen by some as resolving the problem, though they are cumbersome. They can be abbreviated in writing as "he/she", "(s)he", "s/he", "him/her", "his/her", "himself/herself", but when spoken have no accepted abbreviation. This method also leaves out those who are not accurately described by "he" or "she". With the exception of "(s)he" and "s/he", one still has the choice of which pronoun to place first.

Alternation

Authors sometimes employ rubrics for selecting "she" or "he" such as

• Use the gender of the primary author.
• Alternate between "she" and "he".
• Alternate by paragraph or chapter.
• Using "he" and "she" to make distinctions between two groups of people.

Invented pronouns

Some groups and individuals have used non-standard pronouns, hoping they will become standard. Various proposals for such changes have been around since at least the 19th century. For example, abbreviated pronouns have been proposed: 'e (for he or she) or 's (for his/hers); h' (for him/her in object case); "zhe" (also "ze"), "zher(s)" (also "zer"), and "zhim" (also "mer") for "he or she", "his or her(s)", and "him or her", respectively; 'self (for himself/herself); and hu, hus, hum, humself (for s/he, his/hers, him/her, himself/herself). The American Heritage Book of English Usage says of these efforts:

Like most efforts at language reform, these well-intended suggestions have been largely ignored by the general English-speaking public, and the project to supplement the English pronoun system has proved to be an ongoing exercise in futility. Pronouns are one of the most basic components of a language, and most speakers appear to have little interest in adopting invented ones. This may be because in most situations people can get by using the plural pronoun they or using other constructions that combine existing pronouns, such as he/she or "he or she".^[9]

According to Dennis Baron, the neologism that received the greatest partial mainstream acceptance was Charles Crozat Converse's 1884 proposal of thon, a contraction of "that one" (other sources date its coinage to 1858^[10] or 1859^[11]):

Thon was picked up by Funk and Wagnall's Standard Dictionary in 1898, and was listed there as recently as 1964. It was also included in Webster's Second New International Dictionary, though it is absent from the first and third, and it still has its supporters today.^[12]

"Co" was coined by feminist writer Mary Orovan in 1970.^[13] "Co" is in common usage in intentional communities of the Federation of Egalitarian Communities,^[14] and "Co" appears in the bylaws of several of these communities.^{[15][16][17][18]} In addition to use when the gender of the antecedent is unknown or indeterminate, some use it as gender-blind language and always replace gender-specific pronouns.^[19]

Certain sites on the internet have also coined the gender-neutral pronoun "en".

The pronoun "phe" was coined at Brown University and is now used by The Female Sexuality Workshop at the University.

Summary

The following table summarizes the foregoing approaches.

Esperanto

Esperanto has no official gender-neutral pronouns, but there are several unofficial proposals – see the article for details.

Estonian

In Estonian nouns and pronouns do not have grammatical gender.

Finnish

The Finnish language does not support gender-specific pronouns. The main division in the third person singular pronoun is between humans ("hän") and animal/inanimate ("se").

Georgian

Georgian, a South Caucasian language, has gender-neutral pronouns.

German

The gender-neutral pronoun "man", used similarly to the English pronoun "one", is widely used in both written and spoken German.

Irish

In Irish, the masculine singular pronoun sé is used when referring to masculine nouns, and the feminine when referring to feminine nouns; however, when referring to persons, the masculine or feminine pronoun is normally used for male or female persons respectively, regardless of grammatical gender. There is no gender-neutral pronoun, and official usage varies between systematically using sé nó sí ["him or her"] or using the pronoun of the appropriate gender for the noun referred to. However, the third-person masculine plural disappeared from Irish, and the (originally) feminine siad is now used for all instances of "they".

Japanese

Japanese does not have pronouns in the Indo-European sense, but does have nouns that are similar to pronouns. For example, kare (彼^?) and kanojo (彼女^?) can be used for "he" and "she". However, kare in its plural form may supposedly refer to a group of mixed gender. Depending on context, kare or kanojo may also refer to "boyfriend" or "girlfriend" respectively. This is not commonplace and the phrase ano hito (あの人^?, lit. "that person") and other similar phrases would be more appropriate. The most common way to refer to another person is by title or affiliation, e.g. buchō (部長^?, director) or Hitachi-san (Mr./Mrs./Ms. Hitachi). In general, the Japanese avoid using pronouns when they can be determined from context, and often use a person's name where English would use a pronoun. This can be seen in the custom of often referring to oneself by name rather than by watashi (私^?) most commonly by women or boku (僕^?) by men, both meaning "I/myself".

The English titles of "Mr", "Mrs", "Miss", "Ms" are all irrelevant as all people are referred to by the suffix -san (さん^?). The more polite -sama (様^?) suffix is used only in certain contexts with people who are superior in social standing to you, and is also gender-neutral in usage. The most polite suffix -dono (殿^?) usually, but not always, refers to males, and is rarely used in modern speech. Both -sama (様^?) and -dono (殿^?) should be used with caution, and only with more than basic understanding of Japanese social structures.

There is a distinction between animate and inanimate, but this is restricted to the verbs that mean "to exist": iru (いる^?, animate) and aru (ある^?, inanimate) and does not extend to pronouns. There is no equivalent of "it"; instead something like "this/that thing" (この/あの物, kono/ano mono^?) would be used, although often the subject or topic would be left out and determined from context.

Japanese does have different styles of speech for men and women – see gender differences in spoken Japanese – so it would be inaccurate to say that the language is entirely gender-neutral. However, for the equivalent of pronouns and titles, the language is essentially gender-neutral.

Korean

Before industrialization, in Korean 그 (geu) meant "he", "she", and "it" like Chinese tā. But in Modern Korean geu usually means "he". 그녀 (geu-nyeo) with the suffix -녀(女, -nyeo) meaning woman, is used for "she". However, nowadays, massmedia use a gender-neutral pronoun "그 (geu)" to refer to a person of either gender as before, but there is no confusion because there is a very weak concept of gender in Korean.

그것 (geu-geot) means "it".

Sometimes geu-nyeo means more than "she" as pronoun, because the word 그 (geu) is also used to show definiteness, like the definite article "that" in English.

Malay and Indonesian

In Malay and Indonesian, as in most Austronesian languages, there is no grammatical gender; the pronoun dia can mean he, she, him, or her—as well as his or her.^[31][32]

Nahuatl

In Nahuatl, all pronouns and pronoun affixes are independent of gender.

Persian

The Persian language has no trace of grammatical gender: "he"," she", and "it" are all expressed by the same pronoun u (Persian: او.) This lack of specification has allowed for fluidity in reading the gender of both human lovers and the divine beloved in Persian poetry.

Philippine languages

All Philippine languages, as most Austronesian languages, have no gender pronouns; in Tagalog, for example, siya is used for people (whether male or female), and sometimes for animals.

Romance languages

The choice of possessive pronoun in many Romance languages is determined by the grammatical gender of the possessed object; the gender of the possessor is not explicit. For instance, in French the possessive pronouns are usually sa for a feminine object, and son for a masculine object: son livre can mean either "his book" or "her book"; the masculine son is used because livre is masculine. Similarly, sa maison means either "his house" or "her house" because "maison" is feminine. Non-possessive pronouns, on the other hand, are usually gender-specific.

Turkic Languages

All Turkish pronouns, like the other members in the family of Turkic languages, are gender-inclusive. The English pronouns "he", "she", and "it" all correspond to the only Turkish third-person singular personal pronoun o.

Uralic languages

Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian belong to the Uralic languages family of languages (thus not Indo-European) languages. All pronouns are gender-neutral. The third-person singular and plural personal pronouns are hän and he in Finnish, tema (ta) and nemad (nad) in Estonian and ő and ők in Hungarian, respectively, which always refer to persons or animals.

In the last few decades the Finnish spoken language has also moved in this direction. The third-person singular and plural are, respectively, se and ne, which according to the written language specifications refer to an inanimate object or an animal. In informal spoken Finnish, se and ne are routinely used in reference to humans of either gender, animals, and inanimate objects or entities. The distinction between "hän" and "se" is retained in formal situations and in written Finnish except reported informal speech. Thus, at a time when English is moving towards gender-neutrality, Finnish is moving to species-neutrality.

See also

• Epicenism
• Gender-neutral language
• Gender neutrality in English
• Gender-neutrality in genderless languages
• Gender-neutrality in languages with grammatical gender
• Grammatical gender
• Singular they
• Spivak Pronoun

Notes

External links

• Gender-Neutral Pronouns, a style guide
• Gender Neutral Pronoun Frequently Asked Questions
• Gender-free Legal Writing
• The Epicene Pronouns: A Chronology of the Word That Failed (link updated 5-31-06)
• Footnotes: pronouns
• On the Creation of "She " in Japanese
• Regender can translate webpages to use gender-neutral pronouns.
• Is there a gender-neutral substitute for "his or her"?
• Grammar Girl, Quick and Dirty tips for Better Writing / Yo as Pronoun.