On May 16, 2008, at 7:51 AM, Julia Thompson wrote:
> On Fri, 16 May 2008, Alberto Monteiro wrote:
>
>> Julia Thompson wrote:
>>>
>>> I have a friend who has on occasion. Xe doesn't make a habit of it,
>>> but I've seen it enough to know that it's within expected bounds.
>>> (Xe makes xir own dresses, and wears purple a lot.)
>>>
>> :-))))))))))))))))))))))
>>
>> Is this your invention, or some kind of standard
>> crossdresser pronoun? In the Jijo books, He uses
>> "er" for a neutral gender, but I guess using neutral
>> in this case would be politically incorrect.
>>
>> Alberto Monteiro
>
> It's one of the conventions I've seen online. I don't know if it's
> the one that xe uses, but it's the one I've got the best handle on.
I've come across "co" as a gender-neutral or androgynous pronoun, but I
don't think it ever caught on in any widespread way. The "singular they"
has some currency, but is pooh- poohed by prescriptivists.
Wikipedia tells us that Middle English had it all worked out with "ou"
and "a", but they died out. Perhaps Middle Englishers were not as
concerned with what is termed "political correctness".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender-neutral_pronoun
The Wikipedia article gives a list of English neologisms that have been
attempted to solve this problem, including "xe" and "co" and friends,
but includes this caution from the American Heritage Book of English
Usage:
Like most efforts at language reform, these well-intended
suggestions have been largely ignored by the general
English-speaking public, and the project to supplement the
English pronoun system has proved to be an ongoing exercise in
futility. Pronouns are one of the most basic components of a
language, and most speakers appear to have little interest in
adopting invented ones. This may be because in most situations
people can get by using the plural pronoun they or using other
constructions that combine existing pronouns, such as he/she or
'he or she'.
Dave
To Each Xyr Own Maru
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