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 laughs e laughs |
I kissed em | eir head hurts | that is eirs | ey feeds emself ey feeds eirself e feeds emself e feeds 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 xir head hurts |
that is xyrs that is xirs |
xe feeds xemself xe feeds xirself 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] | co laughs | I kissed co | co’s / cos head hurts | that is co’s / cos | co feeds coself |
| "thon"[10][11] | 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"[12] | 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
- ^ Coined by Christine M. Elverson of Skokie, Illinois, to win a contest in 1975. Promoted as preferable to other major contenders (sie, zie and singular they) by John Williams’s Gender-neutral Pronoun FAQ (2004).
- Black, Judie (1975 August 23) “Ey has a word for it”, in Chicago Tribune, section 1, page 12).
- ^ Popularized by LambdaMOO in 1991, based on the use of E, Ey, and Eir in The Joy of TeX (1983) by Michael Spivak.
- ^ Used in science fiction like Peter David’s Star Trek: New Frontier book series.
- ^ First recorded use on Usenet: Chip Hitchcock (1981 May 26) “receptors”, in fa.sf-lovers[1] (Usenet), retrieved 2007-01-01
- ^ Kate Bornstein (1997 December 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
- ^ Lynsey Calderwood (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.
- ^ C. C. Converse (1884 July 23) “A New Pronoun”, in The Critic and Good Literature[5], number 31, New York, published 1884 August 2, page 55
- ^ C. Crozat Converse (1889 November) “That Desired Impersonal Pronoun”, in The Writer[6], volume 3, number 2, Boston, pages 247-248
- ^ Ehm Hjorth Miltersen, “Nounself pronouns: 3rd person personal pronouns as identity expression”, Journal of Language Works, Volume 1, Number 1 (2016)