The Singular Gender-Neutral Pronouns Debate
I recently started preparing the notes for my first story with a non-binary character, especially a point-of-view character. This topic has now been on my mind for some time, hence my reason for this thread.
For years, I've wondered why English never had a proper set of singular gender-neutral pronouns. It used to be
he a long time ago, but that is now considered biased/sexist (though, some people still use it and insist it is the only correct form).
He or she as a phrase is the standard usage, especially in formal situations, but I personally find it tedious and unnecessary, even when shortened to
he/she or
s/he. Sometimes, when authors write articles or blogs, they will use either or, depending on their gender.
They is only acceptable in informal situations, but it doesn't always work.
Imagine the following sentence that uses a gender-neutral name: Jaime always prepares his/her meals. What if we don't know whether Jaime is male or female, especially online when there is anonymity? Just ask, right? No, because for all we know, Jaime may not want to disclose his/her gender, or he/she may be non-binary, agender, or any other gender that isn't exclusively male or female, possibly making
he and
she offensive.
Their doesn't work: Jaime always prepares their meals. That implies that Jaime always prepares meals for more than one people.
One doesn't work: Jaime always prepares one's meals.
One is exclusive to speaking in general.
It especially doesn't work because it's both offensive and usually used only for inanimate objects and animals/creatures with an unknown sex (once you know the animal's/creature's sex, then
it isn't necessary).
This is why there has been increasing demand for singular gender-neutral pronouns, especially over the recent years with the increased awareness of the genderqueer community. I've been searching online for solutions, and there is a number of suggestions and uses. Some have been used in stories, and some are used in the genderqueer community. I came across a blog (link below) that pinpoints the most common variations, and I will quote them in case the link doesn't work.
But first, I want to share my theory on a particular variation:
Ne/nir/nirs/nirself
Examples:
01. Ne is trying to fit in.
02. That gender-neutral pronoun does not belong to me; it belongs to nir.
03. It is not mine; it is nirs.
04. Ne is acting like nirself.
Symbolic Letters:
N =
neutral, also used for ambiguity
I = h
im, h
is, h
imself
R = he
r, he
rs, he
rself
Explanation:
Because
I is from the masculine form and
R is from the feminine, combining the two creates a simplified neutral form with the pronunciation of
-er and
-ur. But wouldn’t the feminine form in terms of declensions be biased? No, because it is a consistent and simplified form, much like the
it form, and it is easier to remember with no unnecessary complication or tedium. The same cannot be said about the declensions of the
me,
you,
he,
we, and
they forms when learning them for the first time. As far as
ne instead of
ni, it is unambiguous in pronunciation because of the
E in
me,
he,
she, and
we. Even
be is pronounced that way. The pronunciation of
ni could be mistaken for the
I in
hi,
high,
nigh, and
sigh. Also, to some (or possibly many) people,
ne is may look more aesthetically pleasing than
ni is because of the different vowels in proximity, especially when it comes to the contractions of
ne’s and
ni’s. But of course, that could be subjective.
Other Letters:
I'm not opposed to
F,
P,
Z, or any other logical consonant. I only went with
N because it symbolizes the term
neutral, and it is also used for ambiguity.
X, while generally denotes ambiguity, can be confusing because it varies in sound. Compare: taxi (
ks sound), xylophone (
z sound), Xavier (
eggs sound), Xia (
sh sound?), and Ximena (
h sound). Granted, the last two are foreign names, but there can still be confusion for some people. Even though
ks is the standard English sound for
X,
xe and
xirself sound awkward and cumbersome, and not everyone will initially know which sound the
X makes in those particular examples. Simplicity is key.
Honorific Title:
Instead of Mr./Mrs./Miss/Ms., Mixter (Mx.) is sometimes in use.
Quote: Originally posted by Gender Neutral Pronoun Blog
1. Ne/nem/nir/nirs/nemself
Ease of pronunciation: 4/5
Distinction from other pronouns: 4/5
Gender neutrality: 4.5/5
Although relatively obscure, this has become my favorite contender. It follows the formats of existing pronouns while staying more gender-neutral than any but Spivak — you could call it gender-balanced. “Ne” is n+(he or she), “nem” is n+her+him, “nir” is n+him+her. Because it has a different form for each declension, it doesn’t lean towards following male or female patterns — patterns made very obvious when you read works about obviously male characters with female-patterned pronoun forms. The letter “n” itself can stand for “neutral” — a property we are searching for. A reader may be uncertain how to pronounce “ne” at first glance, but pronunciation of the other forms is relatively obvious. One problem when reading aloud is that the “n” sometimes blends with words ending in “n” or “m,” but it didn’t occur as often and wasn’t as problematic as “zir” with words ending in an “s” or “z” sound (see entry #4).
2. Ve/ver/vis/vis/verself
Ease of pronunciation: 4/5
Distinction from other pronouns: 4/5
Gender neutrality: 4/5
“Ve” is another good option, found in some science fiction, without a specific bias towards either gender. The declension is again gender-balanced, being evenly split between forms that resemble “he” and “she.” But it does feel a bit more gender-heavy than “ne” — since “ver” and “vis” directly derive from “her” and “his,” readers are more easily reminded of the gendered forms. There are some cases where “ve” will bleed with words ending in “f” or “v” sounds, like “of” or “if,” but this wasn’t a problem very often — maybe about as often as with “ne.”
3. Spivak (ey/em/eir/eirs/eirself)
Ease of pronunciation: 4/5
Distinction from other pronouns:2/5
Gender neutrality: 5/5
Spivak is the most gender-free pronoun that parses well in English (as opposed to “ta” or “thon,” which are also gender-free but simply don’t work in the English language), since it derives from “they” rather than from a mix of “he” and “she.” The problem is, not only does it remove the “th” from “they,” it also changes its grammatical structure. Even ‘singular’ they is grammatically plural (i.e. you would say “they were in the building” rather than “they was in the building”), while Spivak is grammatically singular. The claim that the Spivak pronoun is “more natural” to say than other neologisms is undercut by the fact that it doesn’t actually have the same structure as the already-existing forms.
Furthermore, when spoken aloud, not only does “em” sound like “him” in speech, but people already write a plural “them” as em or ’em in informal writing, making the Spivak pronoun more ambiguous.
4. Ze/Hir and its derivatives
(ze/hir/hir/hirs/hirself) (zie/hir/hir/hirs/hirself)
(ze/zir/zir/zirs/zirself) (zie/zir/zir/zirs/zirself)
Ease of pronunciation: 3/5
Distinction from other pronouns: 2/5
Gender neutrality: 2.5/5
“Ze and hir” is the most popular form of gender-free pronoun in the online genderqueer community, derived from the earlier “sie and hir,” which were considered too feminine/female-sounding since “sie” is German for “she” (among other things), and “hir” was a feminine pronoun in Middle English. The current forms are still leaning on feminine, by using the same declensions as “she.” “Hir,” although it’s supposed to be pronounced “here,” is read as “her” by many people unfamiliar with the term, and the less-gendered alternative, “zir,” along with “ze” itself, often runs into problems when it follows a word ending in an “s” or “z” (or “th”) sound, sometimes sounding just like “her” and “he.” For example, read this sentence aloud: “As ze looked up at the stars, ze realized that this was zir favorite moment of them all.” This isn’t as much of a problem with “ze,” which doesn’t follow words ending in s/z terribly often, but the problem occurs much more often with “zir” than it did with any of the declensions of “ne” or “ve.”
5. Xe/xem/xyr/xyrs/xemself
Ease of pronunciation: 2/5
Distinction from other pronouns: 2.5/5
Gender neutrality: 3/5
“Xe,” it turns out, is supposed to be pronounced the same as “ze” — apparently it was an aesthetic change in order to distance the pronoun from its “sie/hir” roots one step further. It also balances the genders in the way “ze” does not — but it runs into the same pronunciation problems when following words ending in “s” or “z” sounds, and the pronunciation is much more difficult to guess at — I assumed the “x” would be pronounced “sh” or “ks,” which would be either much too gendered or much too unpronounceable to even be considered. All in all, it has slight advantages over zie/hir in its gender-neutrality, but it keeps the same difficulties in pronunciation and is even more difficult to read than the original.
|
Link: https://genderneutralpronoun.wordpress.com/
Debate Questions to Consider:
01. Should there be a new official set of pronouns, or is it fine the way it is?
02. Should there be just one set, or do you prefer options?
03. Which of the aforementioned ones do you use/prefer?
04. Do you have your own suggestions you'd like to share?