Neopronouns

Neopronouns are any set of singular third-person pronouns that are not officially recognized in the language they are used in, typically created with the intent of being a gender-neutral pronoun set. In English, and many other Indo-European languages, third-person pronouns can be gendered. In English, "she/her" is most often used by women, "he/him" most often by men, and "they/them" by non-binary individuals, though some individuals deviate from this convention.

Some individuals prefer using neopronouns as an alternative gender-neutral pronoun set. This could be because they want to avoid singular "they" being confused with plural "they," because neopronouns express something about them or their gender (like xenogenders), or because they feel more comfortable using neopronouns over any of the standard pronoun options.

Regional Nominative Pronouns

Some regional dialects of English historically had or still have gender-neutral pronouns that were or are not used outside of their respective dialects. All of these pronouns have only been recorded in their nominative form. As far as linguists know, there are no other forms of these words (possessive, reflexive, etc), although more forms could easily be created if desired.

These pronouns do not strictly fit the definition of neopronouns, as they developed naturally in the language and, as far as we know, were not created by an individual with the goal of creating a gender-neutral pronoun.

A (nominative only)

In 1789, William H. Marshall documented the use of a, used by 14th century English writer, John of Trevisa. Both the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and Wright's English Dialect Dictionary confirm the use of "a" in place of "he," "she," "it," "they," and even "I." It is a reduced form of the Old English pronoun, "he," meaning "he" and "heo" meaning "she."^[1] Some surviving British dialects still use this pronoun.^[2]

Ou (nominative only)

Ou was first recorded in a native English dialect in the 16th century. In 1789, William H. Marshall recorded the existence of a dialectal English epicene pronoun, singular ou: '"Ou will" expresses either he will, she will, or it will.' Marshall traces ou as possibly deriving from Middle English a.

Yo (nominative only)

In addition to an interjection and greeting, yo is a gender-neutral pronoun in a dialect of African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) spoken by middle school students in Baltimore, Maryland, the student body of which is 97% African-American. These students had spontaneously created the pronoun as early as 2004, and commonly used it. A study by Stotko and Troyer in 2007 examined this pronoun. The speakers used yo only for same-age peers, not adults or authorities. The speakers thought of it as a slang word that was informal, but they also thought if it as just as acceptable as he or she. Yo was used for those whose gender was unknown, as well as for specific individuals whose gender was known, often while using a pointing gesture at the individual in question. The researchers only collected examples of yo used in the nominative form, finding no possessive forms such as *yo's and no reflexive forms such as *yoself.^[3]

List of Neopronouns

There have been many instances of individuals creating new pronouns to refer to a singular gender-neutral individual over the past 200 years. Particularly, several neopronouns showed up in the mid-late 20th century. Many new neopronouns were created in the age of the internet, as the existence of non-binary Individuals became more widely known. While there is no way to list all possible neopronouns, this page attempts to list some of the most notable and most popular examples. Pronouns are listed in order of oldest to newest.

Thon

Case	Pronoun	Example	Pronunciation
Nominative	Thon	Thon went to the store.	/ðɑn/
Accusative	Thon	I met thon today.	/ðɑn/
Pronominal Possessive	Thons	Thon walked thon's dog today.	/ðɑnz/
Predicative Possessive	Thon's	If I need a phone my friend will let me borrow thon's.	/ðɑnz/
Reflexive	Thonself	Thon has to drive thonself to school.	/ðɑnsɛlf/

One of the first known instances of someone purposely creating a new gender-neutral pronoun set in English is that of American composer Charles Crozat Converse, who proposed the pronoun set thon/thons/thonself in 1858.^[4] It was based on a contraction of "that one." The thon pronoun was included in some dictionaries such as Webster's International Dictionary (1910), Funk & Wagnalls New Standard Dictionary (1913), and Webster's Second International (1959). The pronouns are not widely used in the present day. In the 2019 Gender Census, 18 (0.2%) individuals said that they were happy to be referred to as thon.^[5]

E

Case	Pronoun	Example	Pronunciation
Nominative	E	E went to the store.	/i/
Accusative	Em	I met em today.	/ɛm/
Pronominal Possessive	Es	E walked es dog today.	/iz/
Predicative Possessive	Ems	If I need a phone my friend will let me borrow ems.	/ɛmz/
Reflexive	Emself	E has to drive emself to school.	/ɛmsɛlf/

There are several very similar sets of pronouns with the nominative form e which have been independently proposed over the last hundred years. The earliest known example may be created in 1890 by James Rogers of Crestview, Florida.^[6]^[7] It was made in response to the thon set, and was derived from the he and them pronoun sets. This version does not have a recorded predicative possessive or reflexive form.

In 1977, a version in which all forms starts with capital letters was independently created by psychologist Donald G. MacKay of the University of California at Los Angeles. In 1989 an identical version it was independently created by Victor J. Stone, Professor of Law.

Ae

Case	Pronoun	Example	Pronunciation
Nominative	Ae	Ae went to the store.	/ei/
Accusative	Aer	I met aer today.	/ɛ^ɹ/
Pronominal Possessive	Aer	Ae walked aer dog today.	/ɛ^ɹ/
Predicative Possessive	Aers	If I need a phone my friend will let me borrow aers.	/ɛ^ɹz/
Reflexive	Aerself	Ae has to drive aerself to school.	/ɛ^ɹsɛlf/

In his 1920 novel, A Voyage to Arcturus, David Lindsay invented the ae pronoun set for an alien race, which were born from air and of a third sex. These pronouns are still somewhat well known on the internet.

Co

Case	Pronoun	Example	Pronunciation
Nominative	Co	Co went to the store.	/ko/
Accusative	Co	I met co today.	/ko/
Pronominal Possessive	Cos	Co walked cos dog today.	/koz/
Predicative Possessive	Cos	If I need a phone my friend will let me borrow cos.	/koz/
Reflexive	Coself	Co has to drive coself to school.	/kosɛlf/

Co was coined as a possible neutral pronoun by Mary Orovan in an eight-page pamphlet called Humanizing English, which was first published in 1970. The pronoun "co" was derived from the Indo-European *ko.^[8]^[9] Today, co pronouns are still used in some communities, such as in the legal policies of Twin Oaks in Virginia, who first began using co as a neutral pronoun in 1972.^[10]

Ve

Case	Pronoun	Example	Pronunciation
Nominative	Ve/Vi	Ve/Vi went to the store.	/vi/
Accusative	Ver/Vir	I met ver/vir today.	/və^ɹ/, /vi^ɹ/ ^†
Pronominal Possessive	Vis	Ve walked vis dog today.	/viz/
Predicative Possessive	Vers/Virs	If I need a phone my friend will let me borrow vers/virs.	/və^ɹz/, /vi^ɹz/ ^†
Reflexive	Verself/Virself	Ve has to drive verself/virself to school.	/və^ɹsɛlf/, /vi^ɹsɛlf/ ^†

^†Both spellings can be pronounced either way.

The ve pronoun set was created sometime in the early 1970s. It is unclear who originally invented this pronoun set or when, and it is possible that more than one individual created it independently. The most well known usage of ve comes from Greg Egan, who used it in his books Distress (1995) and Diaspora (1998).^[11] Egan is sometimes credited with having created these pronouns, but this does not appear to be the case, and he has never claimed to have done so. An earlier example is in the novel The Bone People (1984) by Keri Hulme.^[12] The earliest known example of ve comes from the 1970 May issue of Everywoman.^[13] This set is nearly-identical but is incomplete. It included ve/vir/vis, with no predicative possessive and reflexive recorded.

Xe

Case	Pronoun	Example	Pronunciation
Nominative	Xe	Xe went to the store.	/zi/
Accusative	Xem	I met xem today.	/zɛm/
Pronominal Possessive	Xyr	Xe walked xyr dog today.	/zi^ɹ/
Predicative Possessive	Xyrs	If I need a phone, my friend will let me borrow xyrs.	/zi^ɹz/
Reflexive	Xemself	Xe has to drive xemself to school.	/zɛmsɛlf/

This pronoun set appears to have been first coined by Don Rickter in an issue of Unitarian Universalist published in May 1973. This coining is affirmed by Mario Pei, who gave Rickter credit in his 1978 book Weasel Words.^[14] This set has a large amount of variations; alternate versions include:

Nominative: Xhe, xey
Accusative: Xer, xim, xym
Pronominal possessive: Xir, xis, xer, or xeir
Predicative possessive: Xirs, xis, xers, or xeirs
Reflexive: Xirself, xyrself, ximself, xymself, or xerself

Per (person pronouns)

Case	Pronoun	Example	Pronunciation
Nominative	Per or Person	Per/person went to the store.	/pə^ɹ/
Accusative	Per	I met per today.	/pə^ɹ/
Pronominal Possessive	Per	Per walked per dog today.	/pə^ɹ/
Predicative Possessive	Pers	If I need a phone my friend will let me borrow pers.	/pə^ɹz/
Reflexive	Perself	Per has to drive perself to school.	/pə^ɹsɛlf/

Known as "person pronouns", these are meant to be used for an individual of any gender. John Clark created person pronouns in a 1972 issue of the Newsletter of the American Anthropological Association.^[6] These pronouns were notably used in the 1976 novel Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy.

Ey (Elverson pronouns)

Case	Pronoun	Example	Pronunciation
Nominative	Ey	Ey went to the store.	/eɪ/
Accusative	Em	I met em today.	/ɛm/
Pronominal Possessive	Eir	Ey walked eir dog today.	/ɛ^ɹ/
Predicative Possessive	Eirs	If I need a phone my friend will let me borrow eirs.	/ɛ^ɹz/
Reflexive	Emself	Ey has to drive emself to school.	/ɛmsɛlf/

The Elverson pronouns were created by Christine M. Elverson of Skokie, Illinois, to win a contest to create an alternative to the singular they in 1975. They were formed by dropping the first two letters from they and its inflections.

It is unclear what sort of lexical agreement these pronouns would take. The pronouns can only be used as singular pronouns, so they could presumably be conjugated the same way as other singular pronoun sets (ie: "Ey was eating.") However, since these pronouns were based on the they set, it may feel more natural for English speakers to say "Ey were eating." It is unclear which conjugation was intended, so either can be used. Most other neopronouns based on "e" or "ey" face the same problem.

Hu (humanist pronouns)

Case	Pronoun	Example	Pronunciation
Nominative	Hu	Hu went to the store.	/hju/^†
Accusative	Hum	I met hum today.	/hjum/
Pronominal Possessive	Hus	Hu walked hus dog today.	/hjuz/
Predicative Possessive	Hus	If I need a phone my friend will let me borrow hus.	/hjuz/
Reflexive	Huself	Hu has to drive huself to school.	/hjusɛlf/

^†Pronunciation is assumed to match that in 'human' both for the theme and to distinguish it from the word 'who.'

Also known as "humanist pronouns," this set was created by Sasha Newborn in 1982, in a college humanities text. They are obviously based on the word human.^[15] They could be considered the first instance of nounself pronouns.

E (Spivak pronouns)

Case	Pronoun	Example	Pronunciation
Nominative	E	E went to the store.	/i/
Accusative	Em	I met em today.	/ɛm/
Pronominal Possessive	Eir	E walked eir dog today.	/ɛ^ɹ/
Predicative Possessive	Eirs	If I need a phone my friend will let me borrow eirs.	/ɛ^ɹz/
Reflexive	Emself	E has to drive emself to school.	/ɛmsɛlf/

The "Spivak pronouns" were created in 1990 by Michael Spivak. They were used in his manual The Joy of TeX so that no one in his examples had a specified gender. The pronouns became somewhat well-known on the internet because they were built into the popular multi-user chat LambdaMOO in 1991. The pronouns then became a common feature of other multi-user chats made throughout the 1990s. In the 2019 Gender Census, 5.2% of participants indicated they were happy with Spivak pronouns being used to refer to them.^[5] Spivak is credited with creating this set of pronouns, although his book does not claim that they are his own invention. It is not known whether Spivak was inspired by the other "E" pronouns that have existed or by the similar Elverson pronouns.

Ze

Case	Pronoun	Example	Pronunciation
Nominative	Ze	Ze went to the store.	/zi/
Accusative	Zir	I met zir today.	/zə^ɹ/
Pronominal Possessive	Zir	Ze walked zir dog today.	/zə^ɹ/
Predicative Possessive	Zirs	If I need a phone my friend will let me borrow zirs.	/zə^ɹz/
Reflexive	Zirself	Ze has to drive zirself to school.	/zə^ɹsɛlf/

Similar to the xe pronoun set, there are several different versions of this pronoun set. Ze is also pronounced the same way as xe. It was likely based on the German plural third-person pronoun sie. The first known case of ze being used is in 1997, by Richard Creel, who proposed ze/zer/mer (reflexive form is not recorded).

Another version was possibly independently created by Kate Bornstein in the 1998 book My Gender Workbook. This version uses ze (sometimes zie or sie) and hir. The most popular variation of these pronouns are based on this version and were created in 2013.

Fae

Case	Pronoun	Example	Pronunciation
Nominative	Fae	Fae went to the store.	/feɪ/
Accusative	Faer	I met faer today.	/fɛ^ɹ/
Pronominal Possessive	Faer	Fae walked faer dog today.	/fɛ^ɹ/
Predicative Possessive	Faers	If I need a phone my friend will let me borrow faers.	/fɛ^ɹz/
Reflexive	Faerself	Fae has to drive faerself to school.	/fɛ^ɹsɛlf/

The fae pronouns are a set of neopronouns created by Tumblr user shadaras in 2013,^[16] though it may have been created independently by someone else earlier. It is one of the most commonly used neopronoun sets, and can be used as either a non-themed or nounself pronoun set. It likely helped to popularise using nounself pronouns on the internet.

Other

These pronouns may or may not strictly fall into the category of neopronouns, but do not fall within the standard usage of pronouns in English.

It

Case	Pronoun	Example
Nominative	It	It went to the store.
Accusative	It	I met it today.
Pronominal Possessive	Its	It walked its dog today.
Predicative Possessive	Its	If I need a phone, my friend will let me borrow its.
Reflexive	Itself	It has to drive itself to school.

It is the pronoun for inanimate objects in English, though some individuals choose to use this as a non-gendered pronoun. Using it to refer to a non-binary individual is considered offensive unless one is specifically told to use that pronoun.

Some may consider it to be a neopronoun when used for individuals, while others do not. On the one hand, it is a recognized pronoun in English; however, it is typically only used for inanimate objects. Being used to refer to individuals is not conventionally part of it's usage.

One

Case	Pronoun	Example
Nominative	One	One went to the store.
Accusative	One	I met one today.
Pronominal Possessive	One's	One walked one's dog today.
Predicative Possessive	One's	If I need a phone my friend will let me borrow one's.
Reflexive	Oneself	One has to drive oneself to school.

One is a gender-neutral pronoun for a generic individual in English. It is typically used in formal speech when talking about individuals in general or someone hypothetical. Some individuals use one as a singular alternative to they.

Alternating Pronouns

Instead of using an alternative or gender-neutral pronoun set, some individuals prefer an alternation between the binary-gendered sets. For example: "When he does not get a haircut, her hair grows long." Alternating pronouns are used in some legal documents to make them gender-inclusive.

No Pronouns/Pronoun Dropping

Also called non-pronouns, null pronouns, or pronounless. Some individuals prefer not to be referred to by third-person pronouns of any kind. Instead of using pronouns, an individual may be referred to by name, an epithet, or the sentence can be rephrased to omit pronouns, typically by using the passive voice.

Nounself Pronouns

Nounself pronouns are type of neopronoun that are derived from an existing word. They are commonly, but not always, used by xenic individuals who may want to use a pronoun set that corresponds with their xenogender, or some other aspect of themself. For example, someone who is catgender may use nya/nyan pronouns.

Emojiself Pronouns

Emojiself pronouns are a subcategory of nounself pronouns, which are pronouns that, instead of using letters, utilize emojis (eg. 💫/💫's/💫self). These pronouns are not intended to be pronounced out loud and are only intended for online communication. In spoken conversation one may or may not use pronouns that are based on the emoji (eg. 💀/💀s skull/skulls).

Nameself Pronouns

Nameself pronouns are a type of neopronoun that derive from an individual's name, or a shortened/altered version of it. It can sometimes be considered a form of pronoun dropping. For example, someone named Samantha may use sam/sams pronouns.

Object Pronouns

Objectself are a type of neopronoun which refers itself to objects, these could be related to food, to furniture, to anything that is considered an ‘object’ which by definition would be a physical thing. For example a person may use choco/chocolate pronouns.

Flags

The purple neopronoun flag was designed by‎ DeviantArt user Geekycorn on April 25, 2020. The stripes, in order, represent agender neopronoun users, neopronoun-using men, neopronoun-using women, nonbinary/genderqueer/other neopronoun users, and multigender neopronoun users.

The green and orange neopronoun flag was designed by Tumblr user Ferns-Garden/Beanjamoose on or before July 1, 2019. The flag is used by the blog yourfave-uses-neopronouns.^[17] Green is for masculine-identifying neopronoun users, blue is for older pronoun sets and the history behind them, white is for non-binary identifying neopronoun users, yellow is for newer pronoun sets and the happiness that comes from them, and orange is for feminine-identifying neopronoun users.

The green and purple neopronoun flag was redesigned by Tumblr user Uncommongenders on June 5, 2018. The meaning is unknown.^[18]^[19]

The xe/xem flag and the it/its flag were designed by Tumblr user love-all-around1223 on April 14 and April 15, 2018, respectively.^[20]^[21] The alternate it/its neopronoun flag was made by DeviantArt user GeekyCorn.

The ae/aer, ey/em, co/cos, ve/vir and thon/thons flags were designed by mourningmogaicrew on Tumblr on June 17, 2021. ^[22] The per/pers, fae/faer, one/one's, hu/hum and e/em flags were designed by the same user on June 20, 2021. ^[23]

References

[1] ttps://web.archive.org/web/20100418022839/http://www.aetherlumina.com/gnp/history.html

[2] ttp://web.archive.org/web/20080630041424/http://www.bartleby.com/64/C005/004.html

[3] ttps://dc.etsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://nonbinary.wiki/&httpsredir=1&article=1203&context=honors

[4] ttps://www.dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/dc/article.php?id=43422

[:0-5] 5.0 ^5.1 https://gendercensus.com/post/183832246805/gender-census-2019-the-full-report-worldwide

[:1-6] 6.0 ^6.1 http://www.english.illinois.edu/-people-/faculty/debaron/essays/epicene.htm

[7] ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070310130020/http://aetherlumina.com/gnp/listing.html

[8] Mary Orovan's Humanizing English pamphlet.

[9] Atlantic article referencing co pronouns.

[10] Twin Oaks website referencing co pronouns.

[11] ttp://www.urticator.net/essay/0/30.html

[12] ttps://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1580481-gender-neutral-characters-and-pronouns

[13] ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070310130020/http://aetherlumina.com/gnp/listing.html

[14] ttps://books.google.com/books/about/Weasel_words.html?id=j9RZAAAAMAAJ

[15] ttp://www.hupronoun.org/

[16] ttp://web.archive.org/web/20210228185937/https://heterosexualisnotadefault.tumblr.com/post/635251444970291201/pronouns-i-have-encountered-in-no-particular-order

[17] ttps://web.archive.org/web/https://yourfave-uses-neopronouns.tumblr.com/post/185988230593/the-flag-and-meaning

[18] ttp://web.archive.org/web/20181216171544/https://uncommongenders.tumblr.com/post/174605594564/okay-so-i-wanted-to-make-hq-versions-of

[19] ttps://web.archive.org/web/https://uncommongenders.home.blog/2018/06/05/okay-so-i-wanted-to-make-hq-versions-of/

[20] ttps://web.archive.org/web/https://love-all-around1223.tumblr.com/post/172939520081/are-there-flags-for-pronouns

[21] ttps://web.archive.org/web/https://love-all-around1223.tumblr.com/post/172959084791/are-there-flags-for-pronouns

[22] ttps://web.archive.org/web/https://mourningmogaicrew.tumblr.com/post/654242515400245248/specific-neopronoun-flags

[23] ttps://web.archive.org/web/https://mourningmogaicrew.tumblr.com/post/654510105426083840/specific-neo-flags-part-2

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