There are many reasons why people have been trying to create new gender-neutral pronouns. One reason is that they want to avoid using language that excludes or marginalizes nonbinary individuals who identify outside of the traditional binary genders of "male" and "female." Another reason is that some believe that existing gendered pronouns can be confusing when referring to people whose gender identity may change over time or varies depending on context. In some languages, such as French, English, and German, this task has proved challenging because of their highly inflected verb forms and extensive vocabularies.
There are also examples of languages where creating and adopting new pronouns has been relatively easy, such as Finnish and Welsh. These differences reflect cultural attitudes toward gender and language use, which can vary significantly across different cultures.
In English, one approach has been to borrow existing pronouns from other languages.
"ze/zir" was popularized by a group called Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Everyone in the 1980s but never became widely adopted. Instead, more recently, people have turned to neopronouns like "xe," "xem," and "xyr," which do not correspond directly to any existing language's pronoun system. Some neopronouns are based on existing words while others are newly coined. Despite these efforts, widespread adoption of gender-neutral pronouns remains elusive in English due to the dominance of masculine and feminine norms in society at large.
The situation is quite different in Finnish, where the official language already includes neuter nouns and third-person pronouns such as "hän/hen" (which means both he/she) and "se" (which refers to an object). Other neutral pronouns include "itse" ("oneself"), "minä"/"sinä" ("me"), and "teidät" ("you"). This linguistic diversity may be related to Finland's tradition of gender equality and its emphasis on consensus decision-making processes rather than top-down power structures.
There are also examples of languages where creating new gender-neutral pronouns has proved challenging or even impossible. In German, for instance, attempts to introduce gender-neutral singular pronouns have repeatedly failed due to strong resistance from conservative language purists who believe that changing existing pronouns would disrupt traditional grammar rules. Similarly, Hebrew has long lacked a gender-neutral pronoun system, despite repeated proposals over the years. The lack of such pronouns reflects cultural attitudes toward gender roles, which remain highly hierarchical in Israeli society.
These differences reveal how language and culture are intertwined, with each influencing the other in complex ways. By examining how different languages handle the challenge of creating and adopting gender-neutral pronouns, we can gain insights into broader questions about cultural attitudes towards gender identity and social change.
How do different languages handle the challenge of creating and adopting gender-neutral pronouns, and what does this reveal about cultural attitudes?
Different languages handle the challenge of creating and adopting gender-neutral pronouns in various ways, depending on their linguistic structure and cultural norms. Some languages have created new words for these purposes while others have adopted existing ones, but all approaches require conscious effort from language users to create more inclusive linguistic practices. This process can reveal underlying cultural attitudes towards gender roles, identity, and social norms.