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Gender-neutral language is language that avoids assumptions about the social gender or biological sex of people referred to in speech or writing. In contrast to most other Indo-European languages, English does not retain grammatical gender and most of its nouns, adjectives and pronouns are therefore not gender-specific.
Features of gender-neutral language in English may include: Avoidance of gender-specific job titles, or caution in their use; [37] Avoidance of the use of man and mankind to refer to humans in general; [38] Avoidance of the use of he, him and his when referring to a person of unspecified sex (see under § Personal pronouns above). [38]
Gender-neutral language or gender-inclusive language is language that avoids reference towards a particular sex or gender. In English, this includes use of nouns that are not gender-specific to refer to roles or professions, [1] formation of phrases in a coequal manner, and discontinuing the collective use of male or female terms. [2]
Languages with grammatical gender, such as French, German, Greek, and Spanish, present unique challenges when it comes to creating gender-neutral language.Unlike genderless languages like English, constructing a gender-neutral sentence can be difficult or impossible in these languages due to the use of gendered nouns and pronouns.
Historically, there were two gender-neutral pronouns native to English dialects, ou and (h)a. [67] According to Dennis Baron's Grammar and Gender: [68] In 1789, William H. Marshall records the existence of a dialectal English epicene pronoun, singular "ou": " 'Ou will' expresses either he will, she will, or it will."
In English, the problem of gender determination does not arise in the plural, because gender in that language is reflected only in pronouns, and the plural pronoun they does not have gendered forms. In the singular, however, the issue frequently arises when a person of unspecified or unknown gender is being referred to.
Through language contact, some words that are originally part of a genderless system develop a grammatical gender. There are two primary ways linguists currently classify and understand this process as occurring: the first is through language contact impacting a language independent of borrowings, and the second is explicitly in the context of loanwords or borrowings.
The Handbook includes suggestions on how to avoid sexist language. The recurring theme is using inclusive language that is not gender biased. Miller and Swift offer a historical account of how language norms have developed in the English language, and then suggest alternatives that do not make gender assumptions.