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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!epsilon!zeta!sabre!mike
From: mike@sabre.UUCP (Michael E. Lukacs)
Newsgroups: net.women,net.nlang
Subject: Re: Non-sexist language (historical)
Message-ID: <737@sabre.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 18-Jun-85 16:31:23 EDT
Article-I.D.: sabre.737
Posted: Tue Jun 18 16:31:23 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 19-Jun-85 05:24:51 EDT
References: <11267@brl-tgr.ARPA> among others <290@wuphys.UUCP>
Distribution: net
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Xref: watmath net.women:5927 net.nlang:3203

> <A very ineffective pickup line.>
> 
>      I've seen alot of discussion recently on
> the problem of what word to use to refer to
> a person of unknown gender. There are several
> word pairs which have this problem, among them:
> 
> 1) man-woman
> 2) she-he
> 3) him-her
> 4) his-her
> 5) hers-his
> 
> #1 seems to have an agreeable solution: person.
> The others however are not quite so obvious.
> 
> So far, the proposed solutions to #2 have been:
> 
> Solution          Comment
> a) he -------- conjures up male image
> b) she ------- conjures up female image
> c) it(?) ----- conjures up non-human image
> d) he or she - messy
> e) s/he ------ O.K. for writing, but how do you
>                pronounce it?
> 
> 
> As you can see by my comments, I don't think any
> of those solutions is the way to go.  Instead,
> I think a new word is in order.  The problem is,
> new words have a hard time getting accepted for
> normal use.  I think the reason behind that is
> the lack of planning when inventing the word.
> 
> What do we want in a new word?
> 
> Well, it should not conjure up any innappropriate
> images, for one (he, she, and it are out!).  Also,
> it should be easy to substitute in for the word
> he or the word she in a sentence.  This would be
> best accomplished if the word were a one-syllable
> word, probably with some similarity to the words
> in the word pair.  This would mean that it would
> take the least amount of effort to use the word
> in place of he or she.
> 
> My nomination ?  Zhe.
> (The zh is pronounced like the z in azure)
> 
> Example:
> If a person saw an automobile accident, 
> what should zhe do?
> 
> Of course, the strange spelling and pronunciation
> of this word could cause acceptance problems.  If 
> anybody can come up with a better word, I would
> welcome the suggestion.  Also,  suggestions for
> new words for other problem word pairs are
> welcome.  Comments anyone ?
> 
> [ These are MY opinions ! ]
> 
> -- 
> Bryan S. Coughlan            "... No one will tell me what all this is about 
> Wash. U. Physics Department			- but -
> St. Louis, MO 63130			I WILL FIND OUT !!! " 
> ihnp4!wuphys!bsc 		- Moribund the Burgermeister

[gblgblgnbl]

	It is not at all necessary to invent a new, unpronouncable,
	word for this usage.

:-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) 

	I hereby submit for the net's consideration the
	ALL-PURPOSE-PERSONAL-PRONOUN a single sylable, easily
	pronounced, common and understandable, and combining
	in a single word all three of the old fashioned pronouns.
	SHE + HE + IT   (that's right, Shit, [pardon me ladies]).

:-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) 

			Mike Lukacs  (pyux#!nvuxb!mike)
			Bell Communications Research
			Holmdel, N.J. 07733