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Sweden will make a gender-neutral pronoun official by adding it to the dictionary

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Christine Andersen
Christine Andersen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 20:03
Member (2003)
Danish to English
+ ...
I have gone over firmly to using singular they in English Apr 24, 2016

I have constructed all sorts of awkward sentences, used plurals when everything screamed singular, and twisted English to avoid writing 'they' with a singular verb in English. But over the years I have been less and less convinced, and now I am older than my English teachers were when I knew them! So I make my own decisions.

I have told their spirits - and I am sure they agree - that fashions change, but English is still English. Mrs. B. fluttered her eyelids in surprise, but said n
... See more
I have constructed all sorts of awkward sentences, used plurals when everything screamed singular, and twisted English to avoid writing 'they' with a singular verb in English. But over the years I have been less and less convinced, and now I am older than my English teachers were when I knew them! So I make my own decisions.

I have told their spirits - and I am sure they agree - that fashions change, but English is still English. Mrs. B. fluttered her eyelids in surprise, but said nothing. Miss Morrison might have muttered 'Poppycock!' under her breath, and then admitted that OK, if it was good enough for Chaucer and Shakespeare, then she would save her red pen for more serious things. Wonderful ladies, both - definitely feminine. The austere girls' school is now part of a co-ed establishment, and a great improvement as far as I can see.

I don't speak or write Swedish, but I read it, and the discussion has definitely affected the way I think about the issue.
And thanks, Mario, I like the 'hän' version.

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Although Oxford dictionaries chose an emoji as their 'word' of the year in 2015, singular they was a runner up:

http://27ldk4j1esh2tto962ds2vk1.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/shortlist-WOTY-2015.png

And it made it to the top elsewhere.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2016/01/johnson-singular-they
... Finally, the American Dialect Society, meeting last week, made in a way the most unusual choice. To capture 2015, members tapped a word almost a millennium old, a borrowing from Old Norse that improbably became part of the English pronoun system. Languages typically don’t borrow pronouns, but the Old English nicked “they” from their Viking foes.

What made the third-person plural noteworthy in 2015? The fact that it is not always plural at all: the ADS specified “singular ‘they’” as the word of the year. In casual running speech, nearly everyone says things like “find a good teacher and take their advice.” But some conservatives insist that “a good teacher” is singular and therefore it must be his advice, or his or her advice, or making it find good teachers and take their advice, an unsatisfying change to the sentence.

Linguists and historians (and Johnson) point out that singular they has deep historical roots: in the King James Bible, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Jane Austen and beyond. English has a gap in its pronoun system (other languages have an impeccable singular gender-neutral pronoun, but we do not). “His or her” is clumsy, especially upon repetition, and “his” is as inaccurate with respect to grammatical gender as “they” is to number. Invented alternatives never take hold. Singular “they” already exists; it has the advantage that most people already use it.

If it is as old as Chaucer, what's new? The Washington Post’s style editor, Bill Walsh, has called it “the only sensible solution” to the gap in English’s pronouns, changing his newspaper's style book in 2015. But it was also the rise in the use of they as a pronoun for someone who does not want to use “he” or “she”. Facebook began already in 2014 allowing people to choose “they” as their preferred pronoun (“Wish them a happy birthday!”). Transgender stories, from “The Danish Girl”, a hit movie, to Caitlyn Jenner, an Olympic athlete who has become the world’s most famous trans woman, were big in 2015. But such people prefer their post-transition pronouns: “he” or “she” as desired. “They” is for a smaller minority who prefer neither. But the very idea of "non-binary" language with regard to gender annoys and even angers many people.

In other words, as transgender people gain acceptance, “non-binary” folks are the next frontier, like it or not. Who knew a thousand-year-old pronoun could be so controversial?
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Hanna Nelimarkka
Hanna Nelimarkka  Identity Verified
Finland
Local time: 21:03
English to Finnish
+ ...
Gender neutrality is great May 20, 2016

As a native speaker of a language that only has gender-neutral pronouns, I find the association of politics to personal pronouns somewhat amusing. I have translated quite a lot of creative writing from Finnish into English, and I can only say that I wish there was a gender-free pronoun in English that would work the same way as "hän" does! There are several authors and poets in Finland that like to use the gender neutrality as a way to expose readers to their own prejudices and stereotypes by l... See more
As a native speaker of a language that only has gender-neutral pronouns, I find the association of politics to personal pronouns somewhat amusing. I have translated quite a lot of creative writing from Finnish into English, and I can only say that I wish there was a gender-free pronoun in English that would work the same way as "hän" does! There are several authors and poets in Finland that like to use the gender neutrality as a way to expose readers to their own prejudices and stereotypes by leading the reader "astray" with their writing (for example by writing about a character that seems to be very macho, only to reveal in the end that it was a she, not a he). This sort of work does not translate well into any language where gender neutrality is not an (easy) option, and I think that is such a shame, and you guys are missing out on some great eye-opening stories!

From a political point of view, I am also for it. People who do not agree with their birth gender go through huge emotional struggles and when they are referred to as a gender they do not feel they really are, it can add to their mental distress. It's a problem that is very real to these people, and helping them a bit by accepting a new word or two into the dictionary isn't a big sacrifice.

What I do not agree with, though, is that there is apparently now a campaign going around on social media where certain groups want people to start calling themselves cisgender when they agree with the gender they were assigned at birth, as opposed to... I'm not sure exactly what, but I guess "normal", although I don't really know anyone who would ever have referred to themselves as "normal gender". While the term makes perfect sense in certain circles and is already widely popularised in them, expecting the whole population to start will make for one insane mountain hike, and the journey seems unnecessary.

[Edited at 2016-05-20 20:52 GMT]
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Jeff Whittaker
Jeff Whittaker  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 15:03
Member (2002)
Spanish to English
+ ...
But the situation is getting a little carried away in English May 22, 2016

with no standard solution, just confusion





And there is a fine of up to $250,000 in New York for using the wrong pronoun: https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/new-york-city-imposes-fines-up-to-250000-for-refusing-to-call-trans-person

[Edited at 2016-05-22 15:34 GMT]


 
Hanna Nelimarkka
Hanna Nelimarkka  Identity Verified
Finland
Local time: 21:03
English to Finnish
+ ...
What are ze, hir, hirs? May 23, 2016

Why are the four versions for gender neutral pronouns? What are these invented pronouns supposed to do? Are they alternative versions, or why are there so many?

 
Łukasz Gos-Furmankiewicz
Łukasz Gos-Furmankiewicz  Identity Verified
Poland
Local time: 20:03
English to Polish
+ ...
Over my dead body May 25, 2016

LegalTransform wrote:

with no standard solution, just confusion





And there is a fine of up to $250,000 in New York for using the wrong pronoun: https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/new-york-city-imposes-fines-up-to-250000-for-refusing-to-call-trans-person

[Edited at 2016-05-22 15:34 GMT]


There may be a need for me to add disclaimers about 'gender-inclusive' stuff. I could, with pain, be persuaded to use the singular they in order not to make a client stand out and attract unwanted attention, but I won't ever use an awkward synthetic pronoun such as 'hir', not even under the threat of a prison term, if the liberals ever take it that far.


 
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Sweden will make a gender-neutral pronoun official by adding it to the dictionary







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