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Gender-neutral or epicene pronouns are pronouns that neither reveal nor imply the gender or the sex of a person.
English
In English, the only gender-specific pronouns are in the third-person singular: he, him, himself, his, she, her, herself, hers, it and its. The third-person plural pronouns they, them, themselves, their, and theirs work equally well for either sex. Hence, the term "gender-neutral English pronoun" refers specifically to third-person singular personal pronouns.
In the nominative or accusative case, the pronoun one is often used. In speech, other locutions are used in the same role, for example a person, someone, anyone.
A speaker may not know or may want to avoid specifying a person's gender. Common solutions include singular they, generic he, generic she, one, generic you, circumlocutions such as he or she, using he and she in alternate passages, and rewording sentences to avoid pronouns. (See pronoun game and Wikimedia's quest for gender-neutral pronouns.)
There were two gender neutral pronouns native to English, 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 fourteenth-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.
The dialectal epicene pronoun a is a reduced form of the Old and Middle English masculine and feminine pronouns he and heo. By the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the masculine and feminine pronouns had developed to a point where, according to the OED, they were "almost or wholly indistinguishable in pronunciation." The modern feminine pronoun she, which first appears in the mid twelfth century, seems to have been drafted at least partly to reduce the increasing ambiguity of the pronoun system....
Baron goes on to describe how relics of these sex-neutral terms survive in some British dialects of Modern English, and sometimes a pronoun of one gender might be applied to a person or animal of the opposite gender. source
| Nominative (subject) | Accusative (object) | Possessive Adjective | Possessive Pronoun | Reflexive | |
| Male | He laughed | I hit him | His face bled | I am his | He shaves himself |
| Female | She laughed | I hit her | Her face bled | I am hers | She shaves herself |
| It | It laughed | I hit it | Its face bled | I am its | It shaves itself |
| Singular they | They laughed | I hit them | Their face bled | I am theirs | They shave themself/themselves |
| Spivak | E laughed | I hit em | Eir face bled | I am eirs | E shaves emself |
| Spivak (alternative) | Ey laughed | I hit em | Eir face bled | I am eirs | Ey shaves eirself |
| Sie and hir | Sie laughed | I hit hir | Hir face bled | I am hirs | Sie shaves hirself |
| Xe | Xe laughed | I hit xem | Xyr face bled | I am xyrs | Xe shaves xemself |
| Ve | Ve laughed | I hit ver | Vis face bled | I am vis | Ve shaves verself |
| Ze | Ze laughed | I hit mer | Zer face bled | I am zer | Ze shaves zemself |
| Ze (alternate) | Ze laughed | I hit hir | Hir face bled | I am hirs | Ze shaves hirself |
| Zie | Zie laughed | I hit zir | Zir face bled | I am zirs | Zie shaves zirself |
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is often interpreted by non-linguists to mean that people will be less sexist if they do not distinguish gender in pronouns or other aspects of speech. Some patriarchal societies that speak genderless languages, such as the Chinese, demonstrate that gendered speech is not a pre-requisite for inequality to exist.
Other languages
Indo-European languages
Proto-Indo-European
In the hypothetical Proto-Indo-European language, there are some reconstructed terms for certain gender-neutral pronouns.- *Tu - Thou
- *Te - Thee
- *Iuh - Ye
- *Wos - You
- *Se - Third person pronoun
French
Like most Romance languages, French has two grammatical genders that are used when referring to any noun. The singular indefinite pronoun on, like English one, makes no reference to gender. On is commonly used in spoken French in the sense of a first-person plural pronoun. However on is insufficiently formal for many contexts. Instead, the problem can be somewhat avoided by choosing a specific noun for the person (such as une personne or le chercheur d'emploi), and obeying the normal grammatical rules: Toute personne souhaitant porter plainte est priée de se présenter au guichet. Here, the past tense is agreed in the feminine form, as personne is feminine.German
The German language has 3 grammatical genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. The third person singular personal pronouns are gender-specific (er, sie and es meaning he, she and it, respectively). The plural form of personal pronouns, sie, is gender-neutral. All pronouns can be declined into one of 4 cases, showing their state as subject (nominative case), direct object (accusative), indirect object (dative), and possession (genitive). Case declension is gender-specific, with the gender-neutral plural following its own declension paradigm.Of possesive, reflexive, relative and demonstrative pronouns, all singular forms are gender-specific while all plural forms are gender-neutral. For a singular individual of unknown gender, the masculine is used. Interrogative pronouns are somewhat more complicated. Who is considered gender-neutral, for it can refer to anyone, yet it declines as masculine (wer (nom.); wen (acc.); wem (dat.); wessen (whose - gen.)). Similarly, the indefinite pronouns jemand (someone/somebody) and niemand (no one/nobody) also traditionally decline as masculine (e.g., jemand - jemanden - jemandem - jemandes), though in contemporary German, the accusative and dative case-endings are usually omitted, and the genitive form is rarely encountered. German also retains the use of man, (cf. der Mann - the man), corresponding to the impersonal "one" in English. It is used only in the nominative case. In other cases, einer is used, and is declined according to the masculine declension.
Was, or "what", is also gender-neutral, but declines as neuter (was - was - wem - wessen). This declension is also used for was für ein (+ acc), meaning "what kind of" in English. Welch- ("which") is usually attributive, and takes the gender and case of its attribute. When it stands alone in questions (usually in the nominative case), it is used in the neuter form. Alternatively, it can take the ending of the gender of its associated nominative noun.
As in English, use of feminine forms is rare and not sanctioned by the grammar. Use of er/sie is just as clumsy as in English.
Two final notes. Adjectival nouns are declined as masculine for indeterminate individual (singular) male humans or animals known to be male, or for individual humans of unknown gender; as feminine for indeterminate individual female humans or animals known to be female; as neuter for all other individual nouns (regardless of referential gender, including animals); and as plural for all groups or collections of nouns. Finally, feminine forms of masculine nouns (especially professions or ones ending in -er, which do not have a distinct plural form) add the suffix, -in, with a plural form, -innen. It is becoming commonplace to see, e.g., Arbeiter/In(nen), on forms, as such a construction includes all men and women, singular and plural.
In conclusion, the German language is just as biased as English towards the use the masculine forms for gender-neutral pronouns and concepts, and subjects such pronouns to the rigors of German grammar.
Indo-Iranian Languages
In Persian (Farsi) and the North Indian languages, pronouns are all gender neutral. Persian verb endings are also gender neutral, whereas gender (and social rank) are clearly specified in most verb endings in the North Indian languages. Essentially, Persian has no system of grammatical gender for nouns, aside from their natural gender, which is not indicated gramatically. As in other Indo-European languages, the plural is often used to indicate respect for human beings.Swedish
In some dialects of the Swedish language there is a word hän that means either han (him) or hon (her). It has spread to hacker slang. Some more common gender-neutral pronouns however are hen (he/she) and henom (him/her). The Swedish Language Council recommends den (it) for third person singular of indefinite gender.Sign languages
In many sign languages, including American Sign Language and the languages of the BANZSL family of languages, all pronouns are gender-neutral.
Constructed languages
Esperanto
In common usage, the Esperanto pronouns ŝi, li, and ĝi correspond to English she, he, and it. Although the author, Zamenhof, recommended using ĝi in cases of unstated gender, this is done infrequently. The gender-neutral demonstrative pronoun tiu is commonly used instead (a usage that does not occur in English). Reformers have coined gender-neutral pronouns like ri or ŝli specifically for persons, and "riism" has in fact made some limited progress.The major reform project Ido introduced of a specifically gender-neutral pronoun, lu, which can mean he, she, and it (both animate and inanimate).
Novial
In Novial the third person pronoun le means he or she or it. There are also the gender specific pronouns lo, la and lu (he, she and it respectively). Each has a corresponding plural les, los, las and lus all translated as they in English.Other languages
Chinese
In modern Chinese, there is no gender distinction in pronouns in the spoken language: the pronoun 他 (tā) means "he" or "she". However, around the time of the May Fourth Movement, a new written form 她 of the pronoun was created to specifically represent "she", and 他 is now often restricted to meaning "he". This language reform was part of a "modernisation" movement, and copied from European languages. Sometimes in writing 他/她 is even used to mean "he/she", but many stylists consider this to be unnecessarily cumbersome.
Both pronouns are pronounced identically; the difference appears only in writing.
Finnish
Like other Finno-Ugric languages, Finnish pronouns make no distinction between male and female. The Finnish third-person singular personal pronoun (he/she) is hän. In colloquial use this is often replaced with se (literally meaning 'it'), as hän is perceived as overly formal. Se is also gender neutral.Hungarian
Since Hungarian does not have any grammatical gender, all personal pronouns are gender-neutral. E.g.: ő ("he/she"), övé ("his/hers"), vele ("with him/her"), érte ("for him/her"), etc. There is no neutral grammatial gender either, so the third person English personal pronoun it is translated to the Hungarian ez or az (literally, "this" and "that", respectively). The terms ez and az only apply to inanimate objects, so using ez or az to refer to a person is regarded to be very rude, as it denounces the person to "thinghood".Japanese
Written Japanese underwent a transition similar to Chinese when an archaic demonstrative kare (彼) was resurrected to translate the "he" of European languages, while a word kanojo (彼女) was invented to translate she. In the spoken language, the words carry the connotation of boyfriend and girlfriend respectively. Japanese does not have personal pronouns of any kind, with all words meaning "I", "you", and, in general, all other words meaning people, being grammatically nouns.Tagalog
Tagalog has no gender distinction in grammar, so the third person pronoun siya can mean either he or she. This is the case with all of the languages of the Philippines and perhaps other Austronesian languages.Tamil
The respectful/plural third-person Tamil pronoun avar can be used to refer to a gender-neutral third person. The pronoun athu, generally used for objects and animals (similar to that in English) and considered derogatory when used for a person, is sometimes used in slang and informal conversations in a humorous way.Thai
In Thai, second and third person pronouns are gender neutral, while first person pronouns and particles differ for men and women. Thus speakers are grammatically required to indicate their own gender, but not that of others.See also
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)
- On the Creation of "She " in Japanese
- Footnotes: pronouns (Archived by Wayback Machine Mar 08, 2005)
- "Riismo" in Esperanto (in Esperanto)
- Regender can translate webpages to use gender-neutral pronouns.
- Is there a gender-neutral substitute for "his or her"?
Seksneŭtrala homa triapersona pronomo | Kynhlutlaust fornafn | Könsneutrala pronomen
"Gender-neutral pronoun"