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  • Teachers' pronouns

    A mummy announces their pronouns

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dave@davehay.com Oct 26, 2019 3:44 pm

For the last twenty-five years or so, I have used a convention that I created, but unfortunately my books are somewhat technical and are not used as widely as I would like. Even so, may I present to this wider audience my solution to this problem:

he or she  -  'e

his or hers  -  h'

It is not disruptive to the flow of the sentence and it communicates the gender neutrality quite well.

Feel free to promulgated the standard, and blame me -David C. Hay-  as you wish.

Regards,

David C. Hay

Reply to dave@davehay.com at 3:44 pm
jbergx@centurylink.net Oct 26, 2019 6:16 pm

I am a retired educator.  Many years ago, as president of an education association, I stressed using the masculine singular pronouns because the profession was widely deemed to consist of women, to the detriment of all when seeking appropriate salaries.

Over the past ten + years, I have used E, shis, and shim as third-person singular pronouns, replacing "He/She", "Her/His", and "Her/Him" respectively.

They are intuitively interpreted, avoid sexism, and promote simplicity and economy in writing.

I hope that they may be more generally used.

 

--Joel Berg, Ph.D.

 

Reply to jbergx@centurylink.net at 6:16 pm
biz@stasick.org dave@davehay.comOct 26, 2019 10:46 pm

For the last twenty-five years or so, I have used a convention that I created, but unfortunately my books are somewhat technical and are not used as widely as I would like. Even so, may I present to this wider audience my solution to this problem:

he or she  -  'e

his or hers  -  h'

It is not disruptive to the flow of the sentence and it communicates the gender neutrality quite well.

Feel free to promulgated the standard, and blame me -David C. Hay-  as you wish.

Regards,

David C. Hay

I can certainly understand this as a written form and I’d agree that it could be useable, but how would you use these in speech - maybe “eee,” but how would you pronounce the “h” sound?

Reply to biz@stasick.org at 10:46 pm
dlwarnick1@gmail.com biz@stasick.orgOct 28, 2019 3:28 pm

I can certainly understand this as a written form and I’d agree that it could be useable, but how would you use these in speech - maybe “eee,” but how would you pronounce the “h” sound?

What does the MLA say about the singular, "them," etc.

 

Reply to dlwarnick1@gmail.com at 3:28 pm