Intersexual/gender-neutral pronouns
James Harbeck
jharbeck at SYMPATICO.CA
Thu Dec 6 02:30:43 UTC 2007
>In context, the FAQ is clearly talking about pronouns, generally neologisms,
>that are explicitly gender-neutral singular, not gender-neutral singular use
>of existing English pronouns whose primary meaning is not gender-neutral
>singular.
I got that bit. But, while I don't move as broadly in the circles
that would use these as some do, I do move in them on occasion, and
have friends who are well ensconced in them, so I'm just a teeny bit
surprised (though not hugely) that I haven't seen any of the
neologistic pronouns used, even the most popular ones. Guess I'm
farther out of the loop than I thought I was.
I note with a little interest (but also not surprise) that they've
been created with separate nom and acc forms, even though they didn't
have to be ("you" doesn't have separate forms, of course). It would
just sound "wrong", wouldn't it, to have the same form, especially of
one ending in [i] in the nom.
James Harbeck.
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