Comments on Are there any examples of neopronouns for non-binary or third gender people being fully incorporated into a language's grammar?
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Are there any examples of neopronouns for non-binary or third gender people being fully incorporated into a language's grammar?
Many non-binary people now request that new third person pronouns (neopronouns) be used to refer to them, for example xe or ze. These have not been widely used by English speakers yet, but it's still too early to say whether they might in the future.
Non-binary gender is a fairly recent concept for many people in western societies, but other societies have long had similar concepts, which anthropologists have termed third gender. Note that not all those who would identify with one of these would identify with the western terms transgender or non-binary gender.
Seeing as these third gender ideas have been around for thousands of years, I would like to know if there are any languages which have fully incorporated (ie, fully grammaticalised) neopronouns for non-binary or third gender people? I am specifically interested in pronouns that are used strictly for non-binary or third gender people, and not ones that are also used in a generic or indefinite manner (as the singular they is in English.)
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One example:
The best canonical/formal source for the Swedish language is considered to be the Swedish Academy Dictionary and the word hen [hɛn] was added to it in 2014 (source: SVT news article in Swedish). This "neopronoun" is gender-neutral third person singular specifically referring to a person, not an object. It was specifically added for the case of a third gender. So now the language supposedly has han, hon, hen (him, her, third gender/gender-neutral).
People have started to use the word quite a lot (though not without some controversy), especially in written text. Not so often when referring to a third gender, but simply in cases where the gender is unknown. Whereas traditional Swedish historically uses denne for the gender unknown purpose - a third person demonstrative pronoun. But which is strictly speaking masculine form, as opposed to denna, feminine form.
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