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There’s a new post on the Web of Language: What’s your pronoun?
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<div class=""><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">For most students, back-to-school means new clothes, a new phone, a new laptop, but this year some colleges are offering
students a new pronoun as well. Harvard</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""> is suggesting the gender-neutral </span><em style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;" class="">ze,
hir,</em><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""> and </span><em style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;" class="">hirs</em><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">,
though it will accept traditional </span><em style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;" class="">he </em><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">and </span><em style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;" class="">she </em><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">if
students prefer them, and the University of Tennessee</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""> adds </span><em style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;" class="">xe,
xem, </em><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">and</span><em style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;" class=""> xyr.</em><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""> This
Fall, students at American University's</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""> orientation are asked to break into small groups and introduce themselves with
name, major, and preferred pronoun. This year’s Vanderbilt</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""> student handbook adopts singular </span><em style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;" class="">they </em><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">as
an inclusive and welcoming pronoun. And the University of Vermont</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""> has been letting students name their own gender and pick
their own pronoun for a few years.</span></div>
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<div class=""><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">Read the rest of this post on the Web of Language: </span><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" class=""><span style="font-size: 11px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><a href="http://bit.ly/1O2pw19" class="">http://bit.ly/1O2pw19</a></span></font></div>
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