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Gender-neutral pronoun for "he/she" | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Gusutafu Senior Member Sweden Joined 5521 days ago 655 posts - 1039 votes  Speaks: Swedish* | Message 17 of 74 13 November 2009 at 11:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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If the group of people is well-defined, you could say "the three of you" occasionally. As to the original point, what languages actually DO have a gender neutral third person pronoun that is not reserved for things? I know Chinese does, except in writing where they have actually made an effort to make the distinction, and that happened recently. But I can't think of any other example. What was the problem in English anyway? Why not use 'they'? Or just say it another way? I have never seen this as a problem in any language.
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| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7156 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 18 of 74 14 November 2009 at 12:06am | IP Logged | ||
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As noted earlier, the meanings of "he", "she" and "it" ("it" being a pronoun rather than an object) in Hungarian and Turkish have been reduced to one word in both languages.
In other words, ő in Hungarian and o in Turkish mean "he, she, it" In Mongolian, "it" can be expressed with the same word as "he, she" but sometimes "it" would be translated in Mongolian using a word that corresponds better to the English "this". 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Levi Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5567 days ago 2268 posts - 3328 votes Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian | Message 19 of 74 14 November 2009 at 4:08am | IP Logged | ||
I encountered one text where the author alternated between "she/her" and "he/his/him" every other time an indefinite pronoun was required. It was odd, to say the least. I vote for "they". Yeah, some prescriptivists look down on it, but so what? It's by far the most commonly used solution in modern English, and it causes no more confusion than German and Italian do by using their words for "they" as formal second person pronouns. Context should almost always make it clear what you're referring to. Edited by Levi on 14 November 2009 at 4:12am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| pohaku Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5651 days ago 192 posts - 367 votes Speaks: English*, Persian Studies: Arabic (classical), French, German, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 20 of 74 14 November 2009 at 4:29am | IP Logged | ||
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Persian has used gender neutral "u" for "he/she/it" for over a thousand years. Him/her/it and his/her(s)/its are also gender neutral. It can be a little confusing in literature, but also very freeing for the poet.
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| Levi Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5567 days ago 2268 posts - 3328 votes Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian | Message 21 of 74 14 November 2009 at 4:36am | IP Logged | ||
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Spoken Chinese is the same. Though influence from European languages has resulted in three separate characters for 'he', 'she' and 'it', they are all pronounced the same (tā in Mandarin).
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| Grosse Affe Newbie United States Joined 6836 days ago 32 posts - 47 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 22 of 74 14 November 2009 at 5:06am | IP Logged | ||
3/4 of the country would disagree with this statement. Not trying to call you on this, I just wanted to clear this up for non-native North American speakers. Don't use Y'all unless you are trying to sound like you're from the South-Eastern States. Basically from Texas over to the Carolina's (and Florida doesn't count ;) And yes I'm from the South so I can use it but not when I visit my wife's family in Long Island, unless I'm trying to be funny. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Levi Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5567 days ago 2268 posts - 3328 votes Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian | Message 23 of 74 14 November 2009 at 5:09am | IP Logged | ||
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"You all", as two separate words, is perfectly acceptable elsewhere in America. Though at least here in the Northeast we usually say "you guys" (regardless of gender).
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| Yukamina Senior Member Canada Joined 6264 days ago 281 posts - 332 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean, French | Message 24 of 74 14 November 2009 at 5:10am | IP Logged | ||
"One"'s certainly not archaic; people still use it. It's just a bit formal. People often use "they/them/their" when referring to a single person, but it's still incorrect. It used to sound totally natural to me, but I've been training myself out of it(though I happened to use it earlier today). I'd rather use "him/him/his" as a gender neutral pronoun, but I don't want want people to misunderstand. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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