[Public] New Pronoun.

[deana_in_texas]

I've decided to invent a new pronoun. The word is 'e'. It will be the third word in the English language that contains only one letter

Comments

[mlik]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spivak_pronoun

[thewlisian_afer]

Aw, I clicked to reply with that, but you beat me to it.

[mlik]

Ninja!

[deana_in_texas]

Damn. Not as original as I though. I like "e" better than "ey" though. Thanks for sharing :)

[micki1026]

oh ho! so you Can use "e" in your paper and if people think that is wrong, tell them to get educated, lol.

[micki1026]

oh, and great minds think alike!

you totally thought of this on your own accord and it sucks that it already exsists (i cant spell today at ALL) but its genuis to know that your idea WOULD have caught on IF you thought of it -first- heh.

e

[squeakdance]

Heh, this comes up a lot for people who are transgendered.

Re: e

[deana_in_texas]

Does transgendered not mean what I think it means? I dunno - generally, if I understand correctly and I may not, transgendered people have a gender that they prefer to be called, even if it is not the gender they were born with. So like, if it's a guy from birth but decides he is more comfortable being a girl, then I stop using "him" and "he" and start using "her" and "she". Like Rachel, for instance? Or am I misunderstanding the term "transgendered"? Or Dr. Morin, who used to work at the hospital back home. I know a lot of people use the term he-she, but ... aside from being rude anyway, it's not really what I am talking about. I'm talking more about hypothetical people who could be of either gender. Like a user of my system. Girls can use it. Guys can use it. Transgendered people can use it.

I guess it's a moot point though, since someone already beat me to the idea, and it hasn't caught on.

[el_staplador]

*nods*

I remember inventing a race of hermaphroditic creatures for the NaNoWriMo before last; they referred to absolutely everyone as hesheit.

In my usual proof-reading field (midwifery) it's slightly easier: the mother is always female, so she; the midwife is probably female, so she; it therefore makes sense to refer the baby - if it's a hypothetical baby - as 'it', just for a little variety.

[el_staplador]

Also wanted to say: it's one of those occasions where English loses out. In Spanish and Italian one can omit the personal pronoun altogether most of the time, because the verb ending makes it obvious. But then you have to cope with gendered nouns. I remember reading a book that claimed that it was a Very Good Thing for feminism that English was becoming the lingua franca because so many of the feminine gendered nouns were Negative Things, comparatively.

But yes, having to work round he/she/it is annoying.

[deana_in_texas]

Yeah, I always found it amusing when i was learning German that "girl" was not a feminine noun, but "turnip" was.