Bibliography of Artificial Pronouns

On this page, I collect articles, books, and other media related to artificial pronouns, largely ones created to fill the perceived for a third person singular pronoun in English (and other languages), and to serve the needs of the non-binary transgender community who are ill-served by the standard English singular pronoun set.

Materials are arranged by type: requests published, calling for suggestions of new pronouns; proposals in which someone proposes a set of pronouns; histories which review past efforts to establish artificial pronouns; studies of usage investigating pronouns which have (or haven’t) caught on; real-world usage of one or another pronoun set (in books); related natural pronouns shows some existing pronouns in English which have been put to one of these purposes; and finally, miscellaneous news stories about artificial pronouns which crop up from time to time.

Please send me any material you think ought to be listed on this page; all contributions will be credited.

Requests

Wood, Gordon R. (1973). “The Forewho: Neither a He, a She, nor an It”. American Speech 48 (1/2): 158–159. doi:10.2307/3087908. Retrieved 20 June 2014.

Proposals

Black, Judie (23 August 1975). “Ey has a word for it”. Chicago Tribune. p. 12. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
Blumenson, Leslie E. (30 December 1971). “And Now, a Unisex Pronoun”. The New York Times. p. 24. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
Carlton, Lillian E. (1979). “An Epicene Suggestion”. American Speech 54 (2): 156–157. doi:10.2307/455219. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
Ch’en, Jerome (6 January 1979). “‘Hir’ Tomorrow?”. The New York Times. p. 18. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
Chicago Daily Tribune. “Mrs Ella Young Invents Pronoun”. 7 January 1912. p. 7. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
Converse, C. C. (2 August 1884). “A New Pronoun”. The Critic (31): 55. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
Gubb, Sophia. “Construyendo Un Género Neutro En Español – Para Una Lengua Feminista, Igualitaria E Inclusiva”. Sophia Gubb’s Blog. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
Low, Werner (20 February 1977). “A Solution to the ‘He/She’ Dilemma”. The Washington Post. p. 34. Retrieved 30 June 2014.
Molee, Elais (1888). Plea for an American Language. Chicago: John Anderson. pp. 200–201. Retrieved 20 June 2014.

Histories

Baron, Dennis (1981). “The Epicene Pronoun: The Word That Failed”. American Speech 56 (2): 83–97. doi:10.2307/455007. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
Baron, Dennis. “The Epicene Pronouns: A Chronology of the Word That Failed”. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
‘Quidnunc’ (1973). “Thon: That’s the Forewho”. American Speech 48 (3/4): 300–302. doi:10.2307/3087846. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
Thomas, Sue (2003). “Spivak”. The Barcelona Review (35). Retrieved 20 June 2014.
Williams, John (2004). “Gender-Neutral Pronoun FAQ”. Æther Lumina. Retrieved 8 March 2007 (Internet Archive).

Studies of Usage

Stotko, Elaine M.; Troyer, Margaret (2007). “A New Gender-Neutral Pronoun in Baltimore, Maryland: A Preliminary Study”. American Speech 82 (3): 262–279. doi:10.1215/00031283-2007-012. Retrieved 20 June 2014.

Usage

Darnell, Donald K.; Brockriede, Wayne (1976). Persons Communicating. Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0136573878.

Related Natural Pronouns

Arthur, Herman (1980). “To Err Is Huperson; to Forgive, Divine”. American Educator 4 (4): 30–32.
Oxford English Dictionary Online. “a, pron.”. September 2013. Retrieved 30 June 2014.
Oxford English Dictionary Online. “it, pron., adj., and n.¹”. September 2013. Retrieved 29 July 2014.
Oxford English Dictionary Online. “they, pron., adj., adv., and n. A. I. 2”. September 2013. Retrieved 30 June 2014.
Rutherford, Millicent (1976). “Forum: Do the NCTE Guidelines on Non-Sexist Use of Language Serve a Positive Purpose?”. English Journal 65 (9): 11, 13. doi:10.2307/815740. Retrieved 30 June 2014.

News

Robinson, Matthew (17 June 2014). “Vancouver school board approves new policy addressing transgender students”. The Vancouver Sun. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
Pink News. “Swedish dictionary officially adds gender-neutral pronoun”. 3 March 2015. Retrieved 3 March 2015.