Why the Battle for a Gender Neutral Pronoun Is Going to Be a Difficult One
So we've already covered gender neutral pronouns on this blog.
Their history and possible future: here
And we discussed English's DIRE NEED for a gender neutral pronouns due to the fact that the horrible conglomerates 's/he' or 'he/she' leave a terribly bitter taste on the end of one's tongue.
However, we didn't discuss HOW this is change is to come about, or what's being done about it.
Unfortunately, English's lack of a gender neutral pronoun is not due to a lack of effort... It's simply because English wasn't built for nuetrality.
Let me explain:
We see gender neutral pronouns fit into other languages almost flawlessly.
Norwegian:
- hun (f)
- hin (n)
- han (m)
Swedish:
- hon (f)
- hen (n)
- han (m)
Danish:
- hun (f)
- høn (n)
- han (m)
So why can't English do this? Take a look back at those pronouns. Notice anything?
Now look at English's pronouns.
We
You
He
She
They
Notice anything now? Ok, I'll help you out.
All of the Scandinavian pronouns are CVC format, while English's are all CV, CVV, or CCVV format.
For those of you who don't know (probably most people, because I'm a nerd),
C stands for Consonant and V stands for vowel.
*ok cool but why is THAT the issue*
Because, it makes creating a comfortable new pronoun that fits the English orthography nearly IMPOSSIBLE.
The Scandinavian languages' pronouns follow a uniform pronoun that is woven into their unique sound. They simply picked two vowel sounds that are on opposite sides of the orthographic spectrum and made one masculine and feminine.
Example:
'u' vs 'a'
&
'o' vs 'a'
If you sound out these vowels, you'll see they're complete opposites!
So, conveniently, when it came time to create a gender neutral pronoun, they simply picked a vowel sound that's IN BETWEEN the two others.
Example:
'u' vs 'i' vs 'a'
'u' vs 'ø' vs 'a'
&
'o' vs 'e' vs 'a'
This means they can create new pronouns that still sound native to their language, because the pronoun is essentially the same, with only the vowel changing.
English isn't like this.
Look at our pronouns again and you'll see a pattern.
We You
She
He
They
Almost all of our pronouns end in VOWELS. This is a disasterous flaw when trying to build new (cohesive) pronouns.
If you change the vowel,
She He We
Sho Ho Wo
Sha Ha Wa
Shi Hi Wi
Shu Hu Wu
then the pronoun sounds outlandish.
In some cases (Hi, Ha) they clash with pre-existing words. In other cases (Wi, Hu, Sho) they sound like other words.
*well what about changing the consonant?*
Not much better. I'm afraid.
She, He, Ne, Ze, Se, Ve, Xe
Again, the problem comes down to the sound.
Read this statement outloud:
"I don't know, is he going to the picnic?"
Now read these:
"I don't know, is ze going to the picnic?"
"I don't know, is se going to the picnic?"
Due to the 's' in 'is' being pronounced like a 'z', the two sentence are almost indistinguishable.
'Ne' is a homophone to 'knee' and would most likely not be widely accepted as a pronouns.
The problem with 'Xe' and 'Ve' are that they use rare consonants, making them sound outside of the English orthograhy.
X is only used in 0.15% of words in English and very few of those times are as a 'z' sound.
V is only used in 0.98% of words in the English language.'
Trying to get these new pronouns to catch on would prove difficult, and they would add yet another orthographical intrusion into an already diverse sounding language.
*Well what about singular they? We'll just use that!*
Although singular they is the most widely used neutral pronoun in the English language, it can only stretch so far before becoming ambiguous.
Read this statement:
"I asked them if they were going to the movies with Mark and Kelly, but they said that they didn't really like them, and that if they were to go, they might get aggrivated with them."
Confusing, right?
*then just use "Mark and Kelly" instead of introducing a second 'they"*
Alright...
"I asked them if they were going to the movies with Mark and Kelly but they said that they didn't really like Mark and Kelly, and that if they were to go, they might get aggrivated with Mark and Kelly."
Now the sentence has (1) become lengthier, (2) become obnoxious and (3) defeated the point of a pronoun.
This is why singular they won't ever become permanent neutral pronoun. Even though it sounds alright, and is very familiar to us, it's ambiguity doesn't mesh well with our existing grammatical structure.
*so what do we do?*
Keep trying, of course!
Keep in mind that these are problems with PRE-EXISTING neutral pronouns! We may be able to resolve this issue if we look further into it.
Spanish, a gendered language, is almost there!
The proposal to use 'e' as a gender neutral identifier is becoming incresingly popular! Thus, words that can be either masculine or feminine (such as todos/todas meaning "everyone") could also be todes! Even pronouns are being affected!
El - He
Ella - She
Ele/Elle - Proposed Nuetral pronoun
French has followed suit with it's own neutrality movement!
Elle - She
Il - He
Yel - Proposed Neutral
Elles - They (f)
Ils - They (m)
Yels - Proposed Neutral (p)
In conclusion, don't give up hope! Neutrality is slowly becoming more of a thing within languages!
Hopefully, the linguistic gap that can only be filled with gender neutral pronouns will someday be filled worldwide.
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