Neopronouns: Difference between revisions

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'''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 [[wikipedia:Indo-European languages|Indo-European languages]], third-person pronouns can be [[wikipedia:grammatical gender|gendered]]. In English, "she/her" is most often used by women, "he/him" most often by men, and "they/them" by non-binary people. However, some people [[crosspronominal|deviate]] from this convention.

[[File:Neopronouns.png|thumb|220x220px|A neopronoun user flag by ferns-garden.]]

Some people prefer using neopronouns as an alternative gender neutral pronoun set. This can be because they want to avoid singular "they," being confused with plural "they," because neopronouns express something about them or their gender (like [[Xenogender|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 a single person 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 [[wikipedia:Old English|Old English]] pronoun, "he," meaning "he" and "heo" meaning "she".<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20100418022839/http://www.aetherlumina.com/gnp/history.html</ref> Some surviving British dialects still use this pronoun.<ref>http://web.archive.org/web/20080630041424/http://www.bartleby.com/64/C005/004.html</ref>

=== 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 [[wikipedia:Middle English|Middle English]] ''a''.

=== Yo (nominative only) ===

In addition to an interjection and greeting, ''yo'' is a gender-neutral pronoun in a dialect of [[wikipedia:African-American Vernacular English|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 people whose gender was unknown, as well as for specific people whose gender was known, often while using a pointing gesture at the person 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''.<ref>https://dc.etsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://nonbinary.wiki/&httpsredir=1&article=1203&context=honors</ref>

== List of Neopronouns ==

There have been many instances of people creating new pronouns to refer to a singular gender neutral person 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 people becomes 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 ===

{| class="article-table"

!Case

!Pronoun

!Example

!Pronunciation

|-

|Nominative

|Thon

|''Thon'' went to the store.

|/ðɑn/

|-

|Accusative

|Thon

|I met ''thon'' today.

|/ðɑn/

|-

|Pronominal Possessive

|Thons

|Thon walked ''thons'' 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.<ref>https://www.dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/dc/article.php?id=43422</ref> 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%) people said that they were happy to be referred to by ''thon''.<ref name=":0">https://gendercensus.com/post/183832246805/gender-census-2019-the-full-report-worldwide</ref>

=== E ===

{| class="article-table"

!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.<ref name=":1">http://www.english.illinois.edu/-people-/faculty/debaron/essays/epicene.htm</ref><ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20070310130020/http://aetherlumina.com/gnp/listing.html</ref> 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 ===

{| class="article-table"

!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 ===

{| class="article-table"

!Case

!Pronoun

!Example

!Pronunciation

|-

|Nominative

|Co

|''Co'' went to the store.

|/ko/

|-

|Accusative

|Co

|I met ''co'' today.

|/ko/

|-

|Pronominal Possessive

|Cos/Co's

|Co walked ''cos''/''co's'' dog today.

|/koz/

|-

|Predicative Possessive

|Co's

|If I need a phone my friend will let me borrow ''co's''.

|/koz/

|-

|Reflexive

|Coself

|Co has to drive ''coself'' to school.

|/kosɛlf/

|}

''Co'' was created by Mary Orovan in 1970. It is derived from the Indo-European ''*ko'', as an inclusive alternative to he or she.<ref>http://www.english.illinois.edu/-people-/faculty/debaron/essays/epicene.htm</ref> Today, ''co'' is still used in some communities, such as in the legal policies of Twin Oaks in Virginia, which provides information on the pronoun in its visitor guide web page.<ref>https://www.twinoakscommunity.org/twinoaks-visits-60/visit-tour-intro</ref>

=== Ve ===

{| class="article-table"

!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/ OR /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 multiple people created it independently. The most well know usage of ''ve'' comes from Greg Egan, who used it in his books ''Distress (1995)'' and ''Diaspora (1998)''.<ref>http://www.urticator.net/essay/0/30.html</ref> 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.<ref>https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1580481-gender-neutral-characters-and-pronouns</ref> The earliest known example of ''ve'' comes from the 1970 May issue of ''Everywoman''.<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20070310130020/http://aetherlumina.com/gnp/listing.html</ref> This set is nearly-identical but is incomplete. It included ve/vir/vis, with no predicative possessive and reflexive recorded.

=== Xe ===

[[File:Xexem.jpg|thumb|220x220px|The xe/xem pronoun user flag.]]

{| class="article-table"

!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''.<ref>https://books.google.com/books/about/Weasel_words.html?id=j9RZAAAAMAAJ</ref> This set has a large amount of variations; alternate spellings 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) ===

{| class="article-table"

!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 a person of any gender. John Clark created person pronouns in a 1972 issue of the ''Newsletter of the American Anthropological Association''.<ref name=":1" /> These pronouns were notably used in the 1976 novel ''Woman on the Edge of Time'' by Marge Piercy.

=== Ey (Elverson pronouns) ===

The "Spivak pronouns" were created in 1990 by Michael Spivak. They were used in his manual ''The Joy of TeX'' so that no person 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.<ref name=":0" /> 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.