Appendix:English third-person singular pronouns
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This is a list of third-person singular pronouns which are used in English. First the common, traditional pronouns are listed: he, she, it, one and the singular they; then, periphrastic or combined forms and attested gender-neutral pronouns are listed.
| nominative (subject) | accusative (object) | possessive adjective | possessive pronoun | reflexive | |
| Traditional pronouns | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| masculine | he laughs | I kissed him | his head hurts | that is his | he feeds himself |
| feminine | she laughs | I kissed her | her head hurts | that is hers | she feeds herself |
| neuter | it laughs | I kissed it | its head hurts | that is its | it feeds itself |
| "one" | one laughs | I kissed one | one's head hurts | that is one's | one feeds oneself |
| singular "they" | they laugh | I kissed them | their head hurts | that is theirs | they feed themself / themselves |
| Combined forms | |||||
| "he or she" | he or she laughs | I kissed him or her | his or her head hurts | that is his or hers | he or she feeds him or herself, him- or herself, himself or herself |
| "she or he" | she or he laughs | I kissed her or him | her or his head hurts | ||
| "he/she" | he/she laughs | I kissed him/her | his/her head hurts | that is his/hers | he/she feeds him/herself, himself/herself |
| "she/he" | she/he laughs | I kissed her/him | her/his head hurts | that is hers/his | she/he feeds her/himself, herself/himself |
| "s/he", "(s)he" | s/he, (s)he laughs | ||||
| Neopronouns | |||||
| "yo"[1] | yo laughs | I kissed yo | |||
| Elverson[2] | ey laughs | I kissed em | eir head hurts | that is eirs | ey feeds emself |
| Spivak (original)[3] | e laughs | I kissed em | eir head hurts | that is eirs | e feeds emself |
| Spivak variants | ey / e laughs | I kissed em | eir head hurts | that is eirs | ey / e feeds emself / eirself |
| "s/he" and "hir"[4] | s/he laughs | I kissed hir | hir head hurts | that is hirs | s/he feeds hirself |
| "sie" and "hir"[5] | sie laughs | I kissed hir | hir head hurts | that is hirs | sie feeds hirself |
| "shi" and "hir" (furry variant of "sie"/"hir") | shi laughs | I kissed hir | hir head hurts | that is hirs | shi feeds hirself |
| "ze" and "hir"[6] | ze laughs | I kissed hir | hir head hurts | that is hirs | ze feeds hirself |
| "ze" and "zir"[7] | ze laughs | I kissed zir | zir head hurts | that is zirs | ze feeds zirself |
| "ve" | ve laughs | I kissed ver | vis head hurts | that is vers | ve feeds verself |
| "xe" | xe laughs | I kissed xem | xyr head hurts | that is xyrs | xe feeds xyrself |
| "hu" | hu laughs | I kissed hu | hu head hurts | hu feeds huself | |
| "per"[8] | per laughs | I kissed per | per / pers head hurts | that is pers | per feeds perself |
| "co"[9][10] | co laughs | I kissed co | co’s head hurts | that is co’s | co feeds coself |
| "thon"[11][12] | thon laughs | I kissed thon | thons head hurts | that is thon's | thon feeds thonself |
| "heorshe" | heorshe laughs | I kissed himorher | hisorher head hurts | heorshe feeds himorherself | |
| "fae"[13] | fae laughs | I kissed faer | faer head hurts | that is faers | fae feeds faerself |
References[edit]
- ^ Spontaneously created at Baltimore schools, no background related to transgender, feminism, science fiction or technical writing known, Stotko and Troyer 2007
- ^ "Transgender" pronouns coined by Christine M. Elverson of Skokie, Illinois, to win a contest in 1975. (Black, Judie (1975-08-23), “Ey has a word for it”, in Chicago Tribune, 1, page 12). Promoted as preferable to other major contenders (sie, zie and singular they) by John Williams's Gender-neutral Pronoun FAQ (2004).
- ^ Popularized by LambdaMOO in 1991, based on the use of E, Ey, and Eir in The Joy of TeX by Michael Spivak (1983).
- ^ Used in science fiction like Peter David's Star Trek: New Frontier book series.
- ^ First recorded use on Usenet: Chip Hitchcock (1981-05-26), “receptors”, in fa.sf-lovers, Usenet[1], retrieved 2007-01-01
- ^ Example:
Bornstein, Kate (1997-12-18) My Gender Workbook: How to Become a Real Man, a Real Woman, the Real You, or Something Else Entirely[2], London, New York: Routledge, →ISBN, →LCCN, LCC HQ1075.B69 1998 - ^ Example:
Calderwood, Lynsey (2002) Cracked: Recovering After Traumatic Brain Injury, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, →ISBN, page 155 - ^ MediaMOO's "person" gender, derived from Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time (1979), in which people of 2137 use "per" as their sole third-person pronoun.
- ^ Coined by feminist writer Mary Orovan in 1970; in common usage in intentional communities of the Federation of Egalitarian Communities.Baron, Dennis (accessed 2010-06-22), “The Epicene Pronouns”, in (please provide the title of the work)[3]
Kingdon, Jim (accessed 2010-06-22), “Gender-free Pronouns in English”, in (please provide the title of the work)[4] - ^ “Skyhouse Community – Bylaws”, in (please provide the title of the work)[5], accessed 2010-06-22
“Bylaws – Sandhill – 1982”, in (please provide the title of the work)[6], accessed 2010-06-22
“Bylaws – East Wind – 1974”, in (please provide the title of the work)[7], accessed 2010-06-22
“Bylaws – Twin Oaks”, in (please provide the title of the work)[8], accessed 2010-06-22 - ^ proposed in Converse, C. C. (1884-07-23), “A New Pronoun”, in The Critic and Good Literature[9], issue 31, page 55
- ^ Converse, C. Crozat (November 1889), “That Desired Impersonal Pronoun”, in The Writer[10], volume 3, issue 2, pages 247-248
- ^ Ehm Hjorth Miltersen, "Nounself pronouns: 3rd person personal pronouns as identity expression", Journal of Language Works, Volume 1, Number 1 (2016)