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Re: Apical pronoun in english?

From:Muke Tever <hotblack@...>
Date:Thursday, March 4, 2004, 6:56
E fésto Remi Villatel <maxilys@...>:
> Hi everybody, > > What kind of neologism would create a native english speaker? > > he + she = *hes [his] > him + her = *hem [h@m] > his + her = *hir [hir] > > <I am talking to hem. Hes is listening to me.> > > I refuse to call my Aliens "it"! So? Native english speakers, it's your > job to create new words en English. What kind of word would you use if > apical > Aliens land just on the lawn of the UNHQ and refuse to be called either > "he" or "she"? (Theorical hypothesis...) ;-)
I assume by "apical" you mean "epicene" ? The easiest way, though not uncontroversial, is to use "they, them, their" (which is what English-speakers often do when referring to a concrete person of unknown gender, or a person in the abstract whose gender is unimportant). For persons with characteristics of both genders, it seems to be nearly an online standard to use "shi, hir, hir" (which I suppose are pronounced identically to the feminine pronouns). For persons without gender characteristics, I'm not aware of anything in common use (except maybe "they"). *Muke! -- http://frath.net/ E jer savne zarjé mas ne http://kohath.livejournal.com/ Se imné koone'f metha http://kohath.deviantart.com/ Brissve mé kolé adâ.

Replies

Tristan McLeay <zsau@...>
Tim May <butsuri@...>