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Neopronouns are neologistic third-person personal pronouns beyond those that already exist in a language. In English, neopronouns replace the existing pronouns "he", "she", and "they". Neopronouns are preferred by some non-binary individuals who feel that they provide options to reflect their gender identity more accurately than conventional pronouns.

Neopronouns may be words created to serve as pronouns, such as "ze/hir", or derived from existing words and turned into personal pronouns, such as "fae/faer". Some neopronouns allude to they/them, such as "ey/em", a form of Spivak pronoun.

A survey by The Trevor Project in 2020 found that 4% of the LGBT youth surveyed used neopronouns.

History

Singular they had emerged by the 14th century as a third-person pronoun, about a century after the plural they, and is first attested in the 14th-century poem William and the Werewolf. Neopronouns were not coined until the 18th century.

One of the first instances of a neopronoun being used was in 1789, when William H. Marshall recorded the use of "ou" as a pronoun.

"Thon" was originally a Scots version of "yon" and means "that" or "that one". In 1858, it was introduced as a gender-neutral pronoun by the American composer Charles Crosby Converse. It was added to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary in 1934 and removed from it in 1961.

"Ze" as a gender-neutral English pronoun dates back to at least 1864.

In 1911, an insurance broker named Fred Pond invented the pronoun set "he'er, his'er and him'er", which the superintendent of the Chicago public-school system proposed for adoption by the school system in 1912, sparking a national debate in the US, with "heer" being added to the Funk & Wagnalls dictionary in 1913.

The Sacramento Bee used the gender-neutral "hir" for 25 years from the 1920s to the 1940s.

In 1970, Mary Orovan invented the pronoun "co/coself", which gained use in a cooperative community in Virginia called the Twin Oaks Community, where it was still in use as of 2011.

In 1996, Kate Bornstein used the pronouns "ze/hir" to refer to a character in their novel Nearly Roadkill. In a 2006 interview, transgender activist Leslie Feinberg included "ze/hir" as a preferred pronoun (along with "she/her" and "he/him", depending on context), stating, "I like the gender neutral pronoun 'ze/hir' because it makes it impossible to hold on to gender/sex/sexuality assumptions about a person you're about to meet or you've just met." The Oxford English Dictionary added an entry for "ze" in 2018 and entries for "hir" and "zir" in 2019.

The term "neopronoun" emerged in the 2010s.

Noun-self pronouns

Noun-self pronouns are a type of neopronoun that involve a noun being used as a personal pronoun. Examples of noun-self pronouns include "vamp/vampself", "kitten/kittenself", and "doll/dollself". Noun-self pronouns trace their origins to the early 2010s on the website Tumblr.

Reception

There has been some conflict over neopronouns, with opposition to the idea in both the cisgender and transgender communities. Many people find them unfamiliar and confusing to use. Some have said that use of neopronouns, especially noun-self pronouns, comes from a position of privilege, makes the LGBT+ community look like a joke, or that the attention placed on neopronouns pulls focus away from larger, more important issues, such as transphobic bullying, the murder of trans people, and suicide. Noun-self pronouns have been viewed by some as unhelpful and unnecessary.

People who are supportive of neopronouns state that they are helpful for genderqueer individuals to find "something that was made for them", and for neurodivergent people who may struggle with their gender identity. Some magazines and newspapers have published articles on neopronouns that are generally in support of them, detailing how to use them and be supportive of those who do.

See also

• Spivak pronoun
• Gender neutrality in languages with gendered third-person pronouns
• LGBT linguistics
• Singular they
• Non-binary gender
• Preferred gender pronoun
• List of gender identities

References

1. ^ Elizabeth Yuko (June 29, 2021). "Beyond They/Them: What Are Neopronouns?". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 2021-10-17. Retrieved 2021-10-17.
2. Samantha Castro. "In Defense of Neopronouns". Institute for Youth Policy. Archived from the original on 2021-10-17. Retrieved 2021-10-17.
3. Tracey Anne Duncan (May 13, 2021). "Neopronouns are the next step in the gender revolution". Mic. Archived from the original on 2021-10-17. Retrieved 2021-10-17.
4. ^ Ezra Marcus (April 8, 2021). "A Guide to Neopronouns". New York Times. Archived from the original on 2021-10-17. Retrieved 2021-10-17.
5. "How to be an ally to friends who've changed their pronouns". BBC Bitesize. Archived from the original on 2021-10-28. Retrieved 2021-10-19.
6. "Pronouns Usage Among LGBTQ Youth". The Trevor Project. 29 Jul 2020. Archived from the original on 19 February 2022. Retrieved 19 Feb 2022.
7. "they". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
8. "A brief history of singular 'they'". Oxford English Dictionary. September 4, 2018. Archived from the original on November 28, 2021. Retrieved November 26, 2021.
9. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee LGBT Resource Center, “Pronouns – A How To Guide Archived 2022-08-16 at the Wayback Machine” (2011). LGBT Resource Center Instructional Materials.
10. The Chambers Dictionary (1998), Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd.
11. Warrack, Alexander The Concise Scots Dialect Dictionary (2006), Waverley Books Ltd
12. "Neopronouns 101". Mermaids. 2021-11-10. Archived from the original on 2022-07-02. Retrieved 2022-06-17.
13. "We added a gender-neutral pronoun in 1934. Why have so few people heard of it?". www.merriam-webster.com. Merriam-Webster. Archived from the original on 2021-10-20. Retrieved 2021-10-19.
14. Baron, Dennis. "Nonbinary pronouns are older than you think". The Web of Language.
15. ^ Michael Waters (June 4, 2021). "Where Gender-Neutral Pronouns Come From". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 2021-10-20. Retrieved 2021-10-20.
16. Dennis Baron (July 25, 2020). "Heer, hiser, himer: Pronouns in the news, 1912 edition". University of Illinois. Archived from the original on 2021-10-20. Retrieved 2021-10-20.
17. Jodi Heckel (January 29, 2020). "Tracing the history of gender-neutral pronouns". Illinois News Bureau. Archived from the original on 2021-10-20. Retrieved 2021-10-20.
18. Tyroler, Jamie (July 28, 2006). "Transmissions – Interview with Leslie Feinberg". CampCK.com. Archived from the original on November 23, 2014. Retrieved November 17, 2014.
19. "New words list June 2018". Oxford English Dictionary. June 2018. Archived from the original on 2021-10-19. Retrieved 2021-10-20.
20. "New Words in the OED: March 2019". Oxford English Dictionary. March 2019. Archived from the original on 2021-10-20. Retrieved 2021-10-20.
21. ^ Wallace, Megan (2021-11-09). "Here's what you need to know about neopronouns". Cosmopolitan. Archived from the original on 2021-12-22. Retrieved 2021-12-22.
22. Ezra Marcus (April 21, 2021). "What's playful, what's deeply meaningful and what's being mean? A guide to neopronouns". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 2021-07-05. Retrieved 2021-10-20.
23. "Are Neopronouns Counterproductive?". The Hill News. 2021-11-12. Archived from the original on 2022-03-01. Retrieved 2022-03-01.
24. Wright, Colin (2022-02-04). "Opinion | When Asked 'What Are Your Pronouns,' Don't Answer". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on 2023-06-18. Retrieved 2023-06-18.
25. "How To Use Neopronouns, According To Experts & People Who Use Them". Bustle. 6 January 2022. Archived from the original on 2022-03-01. Retrieved 2022-03-01.
26. "How to be an ally to friends who've changed their pronouns". BBC Bitesize. Archived from the original on 2021-10-28. Retrieved 2022-04-16.

• Gender-neutral pronouns
• Grammatical gender
• LGBTQ
• Modern English personal pronouns
• Neologisms
• Transgender identities