Ze (pronoun)

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Ze, zer, and mer are gender-neutral language pronouns proposed by Richard E. Creel in 1997 . The proposed pronouns have not gained widespread use.

Traditionally the only singular English language pronouns were, "he," "his," and "him." More recently "she" and "her" have become accepted. Ze, zer, and mer were created so people could use gender-neutral pronouns without being grammatically incorrect (I am going to the doctor tomorrow; I hope they are nice) or awkward (I am going to the doctor tomorrow; I hope he or she is nice).

Ze is a combination of he and she and is used nominative case.

Mom is having a baby; I hope he is fun.

Mom is having a baby; I hope ze is fun.

Zer is a combination of his and her and is used in the possessive case.

Everyone who took the test should write his name on it.

Everyone who took the test should write zer name on it.

Mer is a combination of him and her and is used in the accusative case.

I haven’t met my new professor, but I’m going to see him tomorrow.

I haven’t met my new professor, but I’m going to see mer tomorrow.

Z is substituted for s to avoid homophones like sea or see with ze and sir with zer.

Proponents argue that while ze, zer, and mer may sound awkward now, with widespread regular usage they would soon seem quite natural. Furthermore, awkward language may be prefereable to language that offends people.

References

Gender-neutral pronouns
He \| Singular they
Spivak \| Ve \| Xe \| Ze \| Sie/hir

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