Singular Pronouns for NonBinary in Modern-Day Language and Early Education

[kingsley88]

lol perhaps they should change it to refer to animate objects as well!

[+ Charlie]

20 hours ago, kingsley88 said:

lol perhaps they should change it to refer to animate objects as well!

"It" can refer to animate objects, like a dog, if you don't know the dog's gender.

[+ MysticMenace]

On 7/7/2021 at 5:10 PM, kingsley88 said:

lol perhaps they should change it to refer to animate objects as well!

actually I misspoke - what @Charlie said. but I think the use of "it" when referring to humans has a "dehumanizing" impact to it. 

although do curricula regarding family, gender identity, expression, and sexual orientation even being taught consistently (or at all) in elementary school? I would think the earlier students are exposed to the idea and knowledge of these, the less these topics become foreign to them growing up. although I do wonder if these topics, including how related English language changes, are overseen by district or county or state.

[lonely_john]

I think this joke will cause so much discomfort and conflict that it will fade away into oblivion because there are bigger problems in the world.

The second woman speaking in this video almost loses it, but I think she nailed it, and the journalist speaking in the end it's the confirmation.

 

Edited July 10, 2021 by lonely_john

[+ MysticMenace]

I can't tell if this article is legit or not, but pretty sure "tree" is a noun and rarely used as a verb, but pronoun?

https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2018/09/26/love-simon-star-keiynan-lonsdale-preferred-pronoun-tree/

[+ Charlie]

I don't think Keiyan knows the difference between a noun and a pronoun🙃.

[Walker1]

Since women are to be referred to as birthing people or person with front holes  -what are men now referred to-person with front sticks??

[Monarchy79]

I just started referring to (and addressing) everyone as “it”. 
 

 

[Walker1]

39 minutes ago, Monarchy79 said:

I just started referring to (and addressing) everyone as “it”. 
 

 

Cousin IT? Addam's family were way ahead of their times!

[+ Vegas_Millennial]

Slut is gender neutral and singular

[Luv2play]

On 7/6/2021 at 1:42 PM, Unicorn said:

I've heard of la bite, but never la queue, which implies rear end to me. Is this Canadian or Continental French?

In Quebec, they refer to the asshole as cue. Sounds like queue or the dick, which causes the confusion.

But nice to think they go so well together.

[+ MysticMenace]

41 minutes ago, Vegas_nw1982 said:

Slut is gender neutral and singular

thank you for respecting my true pronoun. lol

[+ Charlie]

We were in our doctor's office yesterday, and while we were alone in the consulting room, I snuck a look at my spouse's page, which was up on the doctor's computer. I saw that in the identifying info at the beginning, there was a note: "pronoun: he, him, himself."

Of course, we do live in Palm Springs, and the doctor is gay.

[Guest]

On 7/21/2021 at 2:05 PM, Charlie said:

We were in our doctor's office yesterday, and while we were alone in the consulting room, I snuck a look at my spouse's page, which was up on the doctor's computer. I saw that in the identifying info at the beginning, there was a note: "pronoun: he, him, himself."

Of course, we do live in Palm Springs, and the doctor is gay.

Getting standard with electronic medicine today. EPIC, the most commonly-used platform, puts the pronouns on all patients--not in a very prominent place, but there if one looks.

[HoleTrainer]

In old English, “you” was previously exclusively a plural pronoun and never would have been used to refer to a singular person.  A singular person was referred to in 2nd person as “thou/thee”.  Over time, people speaking English “improperly” started to use “you” as a singular 2nd person pronoun, and eventually, it took over entirely.

language changes and evolves over time.  It’s by no means set in stone.

Edited July 23, 2021 by HoleTrainer

[+ purplekow]

48 minutes ago, Unicorn said:

Getting standard with electronic medicine today. EPIC, the most commonly-used platform, puts the pronouns on all patients--not in a very prominent place, but there if one looks.

It was interesting to find this here today as I had been giving this some thought earlier in the day.  I would respect a persons choice to be referred to as they, them but I would also expect them to tolerate my not using it or using it intermittently as it is not part of the language I usually speak.  

My Spanish is quite good but I almost always say el Mano and then correct it.  With the they them situation I do find it a bit disquieting as it is not my intention to offend but it does disturb me to have to consciously consider a neutral pronoun when in almost all other circumstances I would use the gendered form easily.  Concentrating on not making that error has, on occasion, has led me to misspeak in terms of content.

I have to say, I also consider my use of  they them a bit of a shameful light, as when I first started sleeping with and going out with men, I would be in social situations in which I did not want to refer to the sex of the person with whom I was going to dinner and  would use they/them as a cover.   In fact, I would often suspect other men of being gay when I noted those men doing that as well.  

[mike carey]

Interesting that health care systems have the capacity to record pronoun preferences, but in most settings a practitioner will only use the preferred pronoun if they need to talk about the patient to others. In most of their interactions the pronoun in use would be 'you'. That's not to minimise the importance of using their preferred pronoun in those settings. (At times using the person's name may be preferable, but that's a separate issue.)

[Scott Virginian]

+1 here for a new single ungendered pronoun.  He/she is constraining, it is objectifying, and “they” as a singular adds confusion. We have letters available…

Suggestions:

ze/zem/zhes or xe/xem/xis (both pronounced with a soft z like the French pronoun “je”).

qe/qem/qes (hard q like k, the Q is a nice tip to LGBTQ)

ne/nem/ney
 

Unrelated, I want to thank the South for at least one good thing: “yall” should become the official second person plural. 

Edited July 24, 2021 by Scott Virginian

[+ nycman]

15 hours ago, Scott Virginian said:

Suggestions:

ze/zem/zhey or xe/xem/xhey (both pronounced with a soft z like the French pronoun “je”).

qe/qem/qey (hard q like k, the Q is a nice tip to LGBTQ)

ne/nem/ney

Making up things is fun…..

I’m gonna use “luluwhammydingdong"….as my preferred pronoun….it’s pronounced "he". 
God help the person who doesn’t write it down correctly!

Edited July 24, 2021 by nycman

[BluDay]

The English language is a great passion of mine - history and use. "it" is considered dehumanizing and "They/them" is a plural. The use of they/them and inventing new pronouns both have the same failing: they are not in common use. The use wll have to change in one direction on another, and that must be done by the bulk of people in a dialect group actually doing it. The issue is not the words so much as the use.

 

[+ MysticMenace]

5 hours ago, nycman said:

I’m gonna use “luluwhammydingdong"….as my preferred pronoun….it’s pronounced "he". 
God help the person who doesn’t writing it down correctly!

this would make for a great strip spelling bee on Scruff though!

[jeezifonly]

A friend recently pointed me to 

Zi /Zir /Zez 

(Zee Zear Zezz phonetically)

Zi walked the dog already.

The dog was so full of energy, he pulled zir down half a flight of stairs.

Zez elbows were banged up bad.

Written or spoken, it won’t be confused for another pronoun already in use. 

Easy on the palate, like the H and soft TH beginnings we have now for gendered pronouns and soft vowels to end. 

I don’t know. I’m in favor of something, but dislike re-use of an existing pronoun referring to multiple nouns. 

Yay to non-gendered!

Not a fan of  “they them their”
 

 

[mike carey]

8 hours ago, BluDay said:

The use of they/them and inventing new pronouns both have the same failing: they are not in common use.

True and not true simultaneously. Using them when the gender of the person is known or assumed is not all that common. They have, however been used that way frequently since at least Shakespeare's time. Few people would even think before making a public address announcement along the lines of, 'Someone has left their car lights on in the car park.' Your wider point that any change will only happen when people choose to adopt it is correct. On this basis, I don't see any of the made-up pronouns catching on. Soi-disant grammatical purists (aka pedants) can fulminate all they like, but the future of gender neutral third person singular pronouns will not be decided by them.

[+ nycman]

23 minutes ago, mike carey said:

On this basis, I don't see any of the made-up pronouns catching on.

How dare you not address me as my preferred pronoun "luluwhammydingdong". 
It’s my god given right to make shit up and demand that you use it. 
(and yes, I had to cut and paste "luluwhammydingdong" from my earlier post 
because I couldn’t remember what the fuck I had just made up…..what’s your point?)

 

26 minutes ago, mike carey said:

Soi-disant grammatical purists (aka pedants) can fulminate all they like…

Ok….that just made me hard…..and taught me a new word.
Fair warning, if you say shit like that with an Aussie accent, we’re gonna be fucking all night.

[mike carey]

11 minutes ago, nycman said:

How dare you not address me as my preferred pronoun "luluwhammydingdong". 

Leaving aside the fact that I didn't address you at all, I would never address you in the third person, that would be unspeakably pretentious, and rude. But I think luluwhammydingdong protests too much. Oops, I just did it.