Talk:s/he

ˌʃiː ɔː ˈhiː

According to LPD, it's "ˌʃiː ɔː ˈhiː" --Backinstadiums (talk) 11:04, 14 July 2020 (UTC)

Folks who can't read IPA probably don't notice that either pronunciation as indicated is a bit of a surprise. It should probably be mentioned in the Usage Notes that, despite appearances, this abbreviation is meant to be read as either the full phrase "he or she" or "she or he". In contrast, however, I'm fairly certain I've heard this read as something more like "ˌʃə.ˈhiː", i.e. "shuh-HEE" for English readers. Similarly, equivalent phrases like "he/she" can likewise be read as the phrase "he or she" or more directly as "'hi:.ˌʃi:". We should probably add usage notes and all accepted IPA pronunciations to all related pages on this topic. Rriegs (talk) 19:37, 4 August 2020 (UTC)

While not contradicting what you've said, it may just be that there's a lax pronunciation of the word or as schwa. Oh, I see, this wasn't the point you were making. Equinox ◑ 20:26, 4 August 2020 (UTC)

To make things explicit, the pronunciation currently given in the entry is /hi ɔː(ɹ) ʃi/, as if "he or she", opposite to the order one might expect from the abbreviation having the "s" before the "he".
Comment: in other cases where an abbreviated/combined phrase is meant to be read identically to some unabbreviated phrase, I have sometimes seen "plain English" used to "redirect" readers to those entries, rather than reproducing e.g. every rhotic and non-rhotic dialect's variant pronunciation of "or", etc. Latin@ uses both, with IPA for the term-specific pronunciations and a "plain English pointer" or as the full phrase "Latino and Latina". We should consider something like that for at least he/she and she/he. - -sche (discuss) 20:23, 4 August 2020 (UTC)

I'm not convinced that s/he has any kind of pronunciation. Of course if you're reading a letter aloud you might say "he or she", or "she or he", but that seems to be the result of internally interpreting what words the abbreviation implies — a bit like reading a tweet with a planet emoji and saying "earth", "globe" or "world". Equinox ◑ 20:29, 4 August 2020 (UTC)

Yeah, that may be a good way of summarizing the kind of situation where giving a "pointer" pronunciation could be more appropriate than IPA. (Other entries that do this include CKIN and ז״ל.) - -sche (discuss) 20:41, 4 August 2020 (UTC)