Neopronouns

SHE/HER AND HE/HIM ARE THE ONLY VALID PRONOUNS

The neopronoun user flag by uncommongenders.

Neopronouns Flag by Geekycorn on DeviantArt.

English a.

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.	/ɛɹ/
Predicative Possessive	Eirs	If I need a phone my friend will let me borrow eirs.	/ɛɹz/
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 off 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. 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.	/ɛɹ/
Predicative Possessive	Eirs	If I need a phone my friend will let me borrow eirs.	/ɛɹz/
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 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. 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.	/zəɹ/
Pronominal Possessive	Zir	Ze walked zir dog today.	/zəɹ/
Predicative Possessive	Zirs	If I need a phone my friend will let me borrow zirs.	/zəɹz/
Reflexive	Zirself	Ze has to drive zirself to school.	/zəɹsɛlf/

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 3rd 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.	/fɛɹ/
Pronominal Possessive	Faer	Fae walked faer dog today.	/fɛɹ/
Predicative Possessive	Faers	If I need a phone my friend will let me borrow faers.	/fɛɹz/
Reflexive	Faerself	Fae has to drive faerself to school.	/fɛɹsɛlf/

The fae pronouns are a pagan-themed set of neopronouns created by Tumblr user shadaras in 2013, though it may have been created independently by someone else earlier. It is one of the most commonly used nounself pronoun sets. It likely inspired the trend of using nounself pronouns on the internet.

A similar fairy-themed pronoun set is fey/fey/feys/feys/feyself. This may have been created independently or it may be an alternate spelling of this set.

Other Non-Standard Pronouns

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.

The it/its pronoun user flag.

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/Its Pronouns Flag by Geekycorn on DeviantArt

It is the pronoun for inanimate objects in English, though some non-binary people (doesn't have to be non-binary but it/its is most commonly used by non-binary people) choose to use this as a non-gendered pronoun. Using it to refer to a non-binary person is considered offensive unless one is specifically told to use that pronoun.

Some people may consider it to be a neopronoun when used for people, 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 people 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 person in English. It is typically used in formal speech when talking about people in general or a hypothetical person. Some people use one as a singular alternative to they.

Alternating Pronouns

Instead of using an alternative or gender neutral pronoun set, some people 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 non-binary people prefer not to be referred to by pronouns of any kind. Instead of using pronouns, a person 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 typically used by xenic individuals, but can be used by non-xenics as well, that derived a pronoun from an existing word. Usually, people will use the pronouns that correspond 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 (ex: 💫/💫'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 (ex: 💀/💀s skull/skulls).

Flag

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 Jul 1, 2019. The flag is used by the blog yourfave-uses-neopronouns. The color meanings are as follows: Green is for masculine-identifying people who use neopronouns. Blue is for older pronoun sets and the history behind them. White is for non-binary identifying people who use neopronouns. Yellow is for newer pronoun sets and the happiness that comes from them. Orange is for feminine-identifying people who use neopronouns.

The green and purple neopronoun flag was designed by Tumblr user Uncommongenders on June 5, 2018. The meaning is unknown.

The xe/xem flag and the it/its flag were designed by Tumblr user love-all-around1223 on April 14th, and April 15th, 2018 respectively.