From: churchh@ut-emx.uucp (Henry Churchyard)
Newsgroups: sci.lang,alt.sex.bondage
Subject: Re: Gender neutral pronouns
Summary: history of gender-neutral pronouns
Keywords: English epicene
Date: 29 Jul 92 23:11:23 GMT
Followup-To: sci.lang
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas

In article <1992Jul27.163712.20830@rice.edu>, adam@owlnet.rice.edu (Adam Justin Thornton) writes:
> In article <14vj55INNt0m@cs.utexas.edu> russw@cs.utexas.edu (Russ Williams) writes:
> >In article <EUGENE.92Jul25231756@ra.cs.umb.edu> eugene@cs.umb.edu (Eugene O'Neil) writes:
> >
> >I occasionally hear rumors that "they" used to be used as a gender neutral
> >singular pronoun, supposedly even by Shakespeare.  I've never checked up
> >on it, but I like to use it this way.  It has the weight of colloquial
> >use even if it is not grammatically correct.
> >I think it's a bummer that English (and most languages) lack a
> >gender neutral singular pronoun.  (Finnish has one!)  I don't know
> >what should be done about it.  Proponents of introducing one (e.g. "sie")
> >correctly note that languages are not static and that it's silly to
> >try to keep them from evolving.  But consciously introducing such a
> >radical addition to the language seems unlikely to succeed; that's
> >not evolution of a language at all.
> 
> Actually, "thon" is a perfectly good gender-neutral English pronoun.
> Unfortunately archaic, but we could start a campaign to revive it.

  "They" has been used since the 14th century; look in the OED.
(There is an article by Ann Bodine in _Language_and_Society_, 1975,
which details efforts by 18th century grammarians to ban this usage.)
Below is the _Definitive_List_of_Suggestions_for_an_English_Gender_
_Neutral_Pronoun (maintained by Dennis Baron <baron@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>,
not me!); notice that _sie_ does not appear (except under the spelling
``ze''):

}Subject: 3.282 A List of Common Gender Pronouns
}
}-------------------------Messages--------------------------------------
}1)
}Date: Fri, 20 Mar 92 9:48:07 CST
}From: Dennis Baron <baron@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
}Subject: common gender pronouns
}
}In view of the interest in the common gender pronoun I am enclosing
}a list summarizing my findings to date on the state of proposals
}dealing with the issue.  
}
}debaron@uiuc.edu
}
}                      The Epicene Pronouns:
}              A Chronology of the Word That Failed
}
}                          Dennis Baron
}
}              Professor of English and Linguistics
}           University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
}
}ca. 1850   ne, nis, nim; hiser  NY Commercial Advertiser, 7
}               August 1884, 3.
}
}    1868   en  Cited by Richard Grant White.  The Galaxy, August,
}               241-44.
}
}    1884   thon, thons  Charles Crozat Converse.  The Critic, 2
}               August, 55.
}
}           hi, hes, hem  Francis H. Williams.  The Critic, 16
}               August, 79-80.
}
}           le, lis, lim (from the French); unus; talis  Edgar
}               Alfred Stevens.  The Current, 30 August, 294.
}
}           hiser, himer (hyser, hymer)  Charles P. Sherman.  The
}               Literary World, 6 September, 294.
}
}           ip, ips  Emma Carleton.  The Current, 20 September,
}               186.
}
}    1888   ir, iro, im (sg.); tha, thar, them (pl.)  Elias Molee,
}               Plea for an American Language (Chicago: John
}               Anderson), 200-01.
}
}    1889   ons  (from one)  C.R.B.  Writer 3: 231
}
}    1890   e (from he), es, em (from them)  James Rogers of
}               Crestview, Florida.  Writer 4: 12-13
}
}    1891   hizer  Forrest Morgan.  Writer 5: 260-62.
}
}           ith  George Winslow Pierce.  The Life-Romance of an
}               Algebraist (Boston: J.G. Cupples), 35.
}
}    1912   he'er, him'er, his'er, his'er's  Ella Flagg Young.
}               Chicago Tribune, 7 January, 1:7.
}
}    1914   hie, hiez, hie (phonetic spellings of he, hes, he)
}               Language reformer Mont Follick, in The Influence
}               of English (London: Williams & Norgate, 1934), pp.
}               198-99, prefers to reduce all third person sg.
}               pronouns to this simplified version of the
}               masculine paradigm.  He further suggests
}               discarding the possessive altogether in favor of
}               the prepositional phrase, ov hie.
}
}    1927   ha, hez, hem; on  The Forum 77: 265-68  Attributed by
}               H. L. Mencken to Lincoln King, of Primghar, Iowa.
}               (American Language [N.Y., Knopf, 4th ed., 1936],
}               460n).
}
}           hesh (heesh), hizzer, himmer; on  Fred Newton Scott
}               (Scott mentions earlier creation of on).  The
}               Forum 77: 754; Mencken adds, "In 1934 James F.
}               Morton, of the Paterson (N.J.) Museum, proposed to
}               change hesh to heesh and to restore hiser and
}               himer" (American Language Supp. 2, 1948, 370).
}
}ca. 1930   thir  Sir John Adams; cited by Philip Howard, New
}               Words for Old (N.Y.: Oxford University Press,
}               1977), 95.
}
}    1934   she, shis, shim (gender-specific parallel to he, his,
}               him)  Cited by Phillip B. Ballard, Thought and
}               Language (London: Univ. of London Press), 7-8.
}
}    1935   himorher; hes (pron. [h s]), hir (pron. [hir]), hem;
}               his'n, her'n   "The Post Impressionist."
}               Washington Post, 20 August, 6.
}
}    1938   se, sim, sis  Gregory Hynes, "See?" Liverpool Echo, 21
}               September; cited by H. L. Mencken (American
}               Language Supp. 2, 1948 370).
}
}ca. 1940   heesh  A. A. Milne; cited by Maxwell Nurnberg, What's
}               the Good Word? A New Way to Better English (N.Y.:
}               Simon and Schuster, 1942, 88-90).
}
}    1945   hse  Buwei Yang Chao, How to Cook and Eat in Chinese
}               (N.Y.: Vintage, Random House, 3rd ed., 1963, rpt.
}               1972), xxiv.
}
}    1970   she (contains he), heris, herim  Dana Densmore,
}               "Speech is the Form of Thought," No More Fun and
}               Games: A Journal of Female Liberation (April);
}               cited in Media Report to Women 3.1 (January 1975):
}               12.
}
}           co (from IE *ko), cos  Mary Orovan, Humanizing English
}               (N.Y.: the author).
}
}           ve, vis, ver  Varda (Murrell) One.  Everywoman, 8 May,
}               2.
}
}    1971   ta, ta-men (pl.); a borrowing from Mandarin Chinese.
}               Leslie E. Blumenson, New York Times, 30 December.
}    1972   tey, term, tem; him/herself  Casey Miller and Kate
}               Swift, "What about New Human Pronouns?" Current
}               138: 43-45.
}
}           fm  Paul Kay, Newsletter of the American
}               Anthropological Association 13 (April): 3.
}
}           it; z  Abigail Cringle of Edgerton, Maryland, rejects
}               epicene it, prefers z.  Washington Post, May 2,
}               Sec. A, 19.
}
}           shis, shim, shims, shimself  Robert B. Kaplan,
}               Newsletter of the American Anthropological
}               Association 13 (June): 4.
}
}           ze (from Ger. sie), zim, zees, zeeself; per (from
}               person), pers  Steven Polgar of Chapel Hill, North
}               Carolina, proposes the ze paradigm; John Clark
}               offers per.  Newsletter of the American
}               Anthropological Association 13 (September): 17-18
}
}    1973   na, nan, naself  June Arnold, The Cook and the
}               Carpenter (Plainfield, Vt: Daughters, Inc.).
}
}           it; s/he  Norma Wilson et al., editors, "A Woman's New
}               World Dictionary," 51%: A Paper of Joyful Noise
}               for the Majority Sex, 3-4.
}
}           s/he; him/er; his-or-her  Cited and rejected by Gordon
}               Wood, "The Forewho--Neither a He, a She, nor an
}               It," American Speech 48: 158-59.
}
}           shem; herm  Quidnunc, "Thon--That's the Forewho,"
}               American Speech 48: 300-02.
}
}           se (pron. [si]), ser (pron. [sIr]), sim (pron. [sIm]),
}               simself  William Cowan, of the Department of
}               Linguistics, Carleton University (Ottowa), Times
}               Two 6 (24 May): n.p.
}
}           j/e, m/a, m/e, m/es, m/oi; jee, jeue  Monique Wittig
}               employs the slashed pronouns as feminines, and
}               cites the latter two which employ the more
}               traditional feminine e; Le corps lesbien (Paris:
}               Editions de Minuit); The Lesbian Body, trans.
}               David LeVay (London: Peter Owen, 1975).
}
}    1974   ne, nis, ner  Mildred Fenner attributes this to Fred
}               Wilhelms.  Today's Education 4: 110.
}
}           she (includes he)  Gena Corea, "Frankly Feminist,"
}               rpt. as "How to Eliminate the Clumsy `He,'" Media
}               Report to Women 3.1 (January 1975): 12.
}           en, es, ar  David H. Stern of Pasadena, California,
}               The Los Angeles Times, 19 January, Sec. 2, p. 4.
}
}           hisorher; herorhis; ve, vis, vim  Cited by Amanda
}               Smith, Washington Post, 11 April, Sec.A, 29.
}
}           shem, hem, hes  Paul L. Silverman of Rockville,
}               Maryland, Washington Post, 17 December, Sec. A,
}               17.
}
}    1975   hir, herim (facetious)  Milton Mayer, "On the
}               Siblinghood of Persons," The Progressive 39
}               (September): 20-21.
}
}           hesh, himer, hiser, hermself  Jan Verley Archer, "Use
}               New Pronouns," Media Report to Women 3.1
}               (January): 12.
}
}           se (pron. [si])  H. R. Lee of Alexandria, Virginia,
}               Forbes 116 (15 August): 86.
}
}           ey, eir, em; uh  Christine M. Elverson of Skokie,
}               Illinois, Chicago Tribune, 23 August, Sec. 1, p.
}               12.
}
}           h'orsh'it (facetious blend of he, she, or it)  Joel
}               Weiss of Northbrook, Illinois, Forbes 116 (15
}               September): 12.
}
}    1976   ho, hom, hos, homself (from Lat. homo, `man,' and
}               prefix homo-, `the same, equal, like')  Donald K.
}               Darnell, in Donald K. Darnell and Wayne
}               Brockriede, Persons Communicating (Englewood
}               Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall), 148.
}
}           he or she; to be written as (s)he  Elizabeth Lane
}               Beardsley, "Referential Genderization," in Carol
}               C. Gould and Marx W. Wartofsky, eds., Women and
}               Philosophy (N.Y.: G.P. Putnam's Sons), 285-93.
}
}           she, herm, hs (facetious; pron. "zzz")  Paul B.
}               Horton, "A Sexless Vocabulary for a Sexist
}               Society," Intellect 105 (December): 159-60.
}
}           it  Millicent Rutherford, "One Man in Two is a Woman,"
}               English Journal (December): 11.
}
}ca. 1977   po, xe, jhe  Cited as recent and ephemeral by Casey
}               Miller and Kate Swift, Words and Women: New
}               Language in New Times (Rpt., N.Y.: Anchor Press,
}               130).  Paul Dickson, Words (1982),        p. 113,
}               attributes jhe, pronounced "gee," to Professor
}               Milton A. Stern of the University of Michigan.
}           E, E's, Em; one  E was created by psychologist Donald
}               G. MacKay of the University of California at Los
}               Angeles.
}
}    1977   e, ris, rim  Werner Low, Washington Post, 20 February,
}               Sec. C, 6.
}
}           sheme, shis, shem; heshe, hisher, himmer  Thomas H.
}               Middleton, "Pondering the Personal Pronoun
}               Problem," Saturday Review 59 (9 March). Sheme,
}               etc. proposed by Thomas S. Jackson of Washington,
}               D. C.; Middleton refers to proposals for heshe,
}               hisher, himmer.
}
}           em, ems  Jeffrey J. Smith (using pseudonym TINTAJL
}               jefry) Em Institute Newsletter (June).
}
}    1978   ae  Cited by Cheris Kramer(ae), Barrie Thorne, and
}               Nancy Henley, "Perspectives on Language and
}               Communication," Signs 3: 638-51, as occurring in
}               fiction, especially science fiction.
}
}           hir  Ray A. Killian, Managers Must Lead! (AMACOM)
}               press release; cited in "The Epicene Pronoun Yet
}               Again," American Speech 54 (1979): 157-58.
}
}           hesh, hizer, hirm; sheehy; sap (from homo sapiens)
}               Tom Wicker, "More About He/She and Thon," New York
}               Times, 14 May, Sec. 4, p. 19  Hesh etc. proposed
}               by Prof. Robert Longwell of the University of
}               Northern Colorado; sheehy by David Kraus of Bell
}               Harbor, N.Y.; sap (facetiously) by Dr. Lawrence S.
}               Ross, of Huntington, N.Y.; Wicker adds that
}               several readers offered blends of he, she, and it.
}
}           heesh, hiser(s), herm, hermself  Leonora A. Timm, "Not
}               Mere Tongue in Cheek: The Case for a Common Gender
}               Pronoun in English," International Journal of
}               Women's Studies 1: 555-65.
}
}    1979   one  Lillian E. Carleton, "An Epicene Suggestion,"
}               American Speech 54: 156-57.
}
}           et, ets, etself  Aline Hoffman of Sarnia, Ontario;
}               cited by William Sherk, Brave New Words (Toronto:
}               Doubleday Canada, 1979).
}
}           hir, hires, hirem, hirself  Jerome Ch'en, Professor of
}               History at York University, New York Times, 6
}               January, 18.
}
}           shey, sheir, sheirs; hey, heir, heirs  Paul Encimer
}               favors the first over the second paradigm. The
}               Peacemaker 32 (February): 2-3.
}    1980   it  Herman Arthur, "To Err Is Huperson; to Forgive,
}               Divine," American Educator 4 (Winter): 30-32.
}
}    1981   heshe, hes, hem  Ronald C. Corbyn, "Getting Around
}               Sexist Pronouns," Anthropology Newsletter 22
}               (October): 10-11.
}
}    1982   shey, shem, sheir  Mauritz Johnson; cited by William
}               Safire, What's the Good Word? (N.Y.: Times Books),
}               30.
}
}           E, Ir  Subject and possessive forms, created by the
}               Broward County, Florida, public schools; cited by
}               Paul Dickson in Words (N. Y.: Delacorte), 113.
}
}    1984   hiser  McClain B. Smith, Ann Arbor News, 20 January,
}               Sec. A, 6.
}
}           hes  Ernie Permentier, Ms. (May): 22.
}
}           hann  Steven Schaufele of the Univ. of Illinois
}               linguistics department takes this from Old Norse,
}               already the source of some English pronouns;
}               analogous to Finnish han.  Colorless Green
}               Newsflashes 4 (9 November), 3.
}
}    1985   herm  Jenny Cheshire traces this to the magazine
}               Lysistrata. "A Question of Masculine Bias,"
}               Today's English 1: 26.
}
}    1988   han, hans  A. M. Stratford, of Norfolk, England,
}               creates this form to resemble other British
}               initials (HM, HRH, HMS, HE, HMSO), English Today
}               14:5-6.
}
}           e, e's (from the common letter in he and she)   Eugene
}               Wine, of Miami-Dade Community College, also notes
}               that I and you "have already been reduced to a
}               single vowel sound."  Chronicle of Higher
}               Education, 21 September, 2.
}
}    1989   ala, alum, alis Michael Knab, of Goodwin, Knab and
}               Co., Chicago, derives these from Lat. al, `other'
}               and feels they resemble the Hawaiian sex-neutral
}               pronouns oia, ia.  Press release and personal
}               communication.
}
}           e, e's, emself, em  Victor J. Stone, Professor of Law
}               at the University of Illinois at Urbana.  In the
}               Chicago Bar Association's CBA Record 3
}               (July/August): 12.
}
}    1991   de/deis; den/din  Richard Strand, Keith Roberson, Dan
}               Fisher, BLAST (Computer) Support Office, Dept. of
}               Mechanical Englineering, Univ. of Illinois.
}               de/deis (rhymes with `dee/dyes') created de novo
}               with some Germanic influence; den/din created on a
}               similar `root' to replace man/woman and men/women.
}
}--------------------------------------------------------------------------
}Linguist List:  Vol-3-282.
}
-- ____  ___   _  / _ _  ___   _  / _ _      _  ___    _   ____   Henry
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      |     |       __\     |   |   __\            |  __|  |  |      churchh@
      .     .  __    .      .                      .   .    . .      emx.cc.
      .     .        .      .                          .     .       utexas.edu