Non-binary history

## Pronouns

Pronouns outside of the binary were historically called *epicene* or *common pronouns*.

### Historical attempts

Various calls for gender-neutral pronouns were made in newspapers in the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries, after singular they usage became widely criticized.

* **Hesher/himer/hiser**:A critic who replied to Charles C. Converse mentioned an attempt with hesher/hiser/himer: "Later somebody suggested a combination of 'his' and 'her,' making 'hiser,' and one or two newspapers used the form for a time." This set was also referenced by Charles G. Worden, a *Rocky Mountain News* reader who stated they were a “bi-personal pronoun". It appeared on December 17, 1894.
* **Hi/hes/hem**: These made an appearance in the *Rocky Mountain News* on August 3rd, 1890 in an attempt for widespread usage.
* **Ne/nem/nis**: Another mentioned by Converse's critical responder, stating "The earliest result which we remember was 'ne, nis, nim,' and a very serious effort indeed was made to introduce this bastard word form into use."
* **Thon**: Charles C. Converse, a lawyer and hymn poet writer, had proposed "thon", a portmanteau of "that" and "one". This produced a response in the *Boston Daily Advertise*r, published on August 6, 1884. The author mentions that these forms were created “thirty years ago, or more”, making it at least circa 1850. It was entered *Webster’s Second New International Dictionary* in 1934, and *Funk and Wagnall’s Standard Dictionary* from 1898-1964.

### It/its/itself

**It/its/itself pronouns** are generally used for non-human animals and inanimate objects, with their usage on humans deemed as offensive, and seen as a slur towards transgender people in particular.

In 17th century England, "it" was used in reference to 'people who didn’t fit a gender binary' under inheritance laws.

### Singular they

**Singular they pronouns** are used as standard gender-neutral pronouns in the 21st century, but were seen as early as the 14th century. In particular, the oldest known usage was in the 1382 Wycleff Bible, written in Middle English; Ecclus. 38.35: "*Eche on in þer craft ys wijs,*" translating to "Each one in their craft is wise". It has been widely considered grammatically incorrect, despite being commonly used in everday language, where the person's gender is unknown: "I saw the perp run by, but *they* were covering *their* face." The *American Psychological Association* accepted its usage in 2010, whereas the *Washington Post* did so in 2015, and the *Chicago Manual of Style*, *Associated Press,* and *Modern Language Association* in 2017. It was considered to be the 2015 Word of the Year by the American Dialect Society.

### Spivak

**Spivak pronouns** were named after mathematician and author Michael Spivak, after his usage of said pronouns in his textbooks and manuals, the earliest seen in *The Joy of TeX*, published in 1980. However, he did not create them, as there have been other variations.

* **Ae/aer/aer**: Author David Lindsey created these for his 1920 novel *A Voyage to Arcturus* for a fictional alien race that were "unmistakably of a third positive sex".
* **E/em/es**: A man named James Rogers suggested these in response to a lawyer and hymn poet Charles C. Converse, who suggested the use of "thon".
* **E/Em/Eir**: Spivak's form. He states in *The Joy of TeX (Second Edition)*: "Since TeX is a rather revolutionary approach to typesetting, I decided that a rather revolutionary approach to non-SeXist terminology would be appropriate in this manual. I myself am completely unprejudiced, of course. As Mark Twain said, or should have said: All I care to know is that a man or woman is a human being—that is enough for me; he or she can't be any worse. But I hate having to say "he or she" or "his or her" or using awkward circumlocutions. Numerous approaches to this problem have been suggested, but one strikes me as particularly simple and sensible. Just as 'I' is the first person singular pronoun, regardless of gender, so 'E' will be used in this book as the third person singular pronoun for both genders. Thus, 'E' is the singular of 'they'. Accordingly, 'Eir' (pronounced to rhyme with 'their') will be the possessive, and 'Em' (rhyming with 'them') will stand for either 'him' or 'her'."
* **Ee/ee/ees**: Linguist Lilian Carlton wrote a critical piece on an university professor (possibly Dr. Donald McKay) and his suggestion for ee, writing that "For one thing, spoken fast, it comes uncomfortably close to the illiterate hisself. For another, ee sounds too much like he and would therefore be confusing."
* **Ey/em/eir**: Singular they pronouns without 'th-'. While not the creator, the earliest known publication of this set was in the Chicago Tribune, submitted for a contest by Judie Black.

### Neopronouns

**Neopronouns** are considered to be pronouns created within recent late 20th and 21st century history.

#### Nounself

**Nounself pronouns** are pronouns created with a common noun as its base.

#### Nameself pronouns

**Nameself pronouns** are a form of neopronoun that uses the subject's name as a pronoun.

## Sources

1. ↑ https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/epicene
2. ↑ Gerner, Jürgen (2000). "Singular and Plural Anaphors of Indefinite Plural Pronouns in Spoken British English". In Kirk, John M. Corpora Galore: Analyses and Techniques in Describing English: Papers from the Nineteenth International Conference on English Language Research on Computerised Corpora (ICAME 1998). Rodopi.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 https://blogs.illinois.edu/view/25/31097
4. ↑ https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/singular-nonbinary-they
5. ↑ https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/middle-english-dictionary/quotations?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search\_field=quote\_everything&q=Eche+on+in+%C3%BEer+craft+ys+wijs.
6. ↑ https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/01/singular-their-affront-good-writing/319329/
7. ↑ https://www.npr.org/2016/01/13/462906419/everyone-uses-singular-they-whether-they-realize-it-or-not
8. ↑ https://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2015/11/the-use-of-singular-they-in-apa-style.html
9. ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-post-drops-the-mike--and-the-hyphen-in-e-mail/2015/12/04/ccd6e33a-98fa-11e5-8917-653b65c809eb\_story.html?noredirect=on
10. ↑ https://www.cjr.org/language\_corner/stylebooks-single-they-ap-chicago-gender-neutral.php
11. ↑ https://www.americandialect.org/2015-word-of-the-year-is-singular-they
12. ↑ https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1329/1329-h/1329-h.htm
13. ↑ Rogers, James. "That Impersonal Pronoun." Editorial. Comp. William Henry Hills. *The Writer*. Boston. Jan. 1890, 4th ed.
14. ↑ Spivak, Michael. *The Joy of TeX (Second Edition)*. American Mathematical Society. Providence, Rhode Island. 1990.
15. ↑ https://www.jstor.org/stable/3173588
16. ↑ https://www.jstor.org/stable/455219