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''Sie'' and '''''hir''''' are inflected forms of a proposed gender-neutral Third Person Singular personal Pronoun for the English Language (see Gender-neutral Pronoun s). This Neologism is used by some people who feel that there are problems with gender-specific pronouns because they imply Sex and/or Gender (see Non-sexist Language ). However, ''sie'' and ''hir'' are very rare compared to other solutions and most commentators feel that it is unlikely that they will catch on.

Some series or in Robert Anton Wilson 's '' Schrödinger's Cat Trilogy ''). It was also moderately popular on the Usenet group Alt.sex.bondage in the early 1990's. {Link without Title}

The recommended usage is shown in the table below. See Declension for more information on each of the cases.










































Subject Object Possessive Adjective Possessive Pronoun Reflexive
Male ''He'' laughed I hit ''him'' ''His'' face bled I am ''his'' He washes ''himself''
Female ''She'' laughed I hit ''her'' ''Her'' face bled I am ''hers'' She washes ''herself''
Neuter ''It'' laughed I hit ''it'' ''Its'' face bled I am ''its'' It washes ''itself''
Gender-neutral ''Sie'' laughed I hit ''hir'' ''Hir'' face bled I am ''hirs'' Sie washes ''hirself''


You can Capitalise these words for all of the reasons you might capitalise other pronouns. For example, if you believe in a Transgendered Deity , then you might pray to ''Hir'' in the hope that ''Sie'' will intervene in your life.


ETYMOLOGY


: Consider someone trying to put a left hand into a right-handed glove; if either the glove or the hand is replaced with its reverse you'll get a gloved hand. Obviously this doesn't work if the person specifically wants this glove on hir left hand

: First recorded usage of ''hir'' on Usenet – May 26 1981

The ancestors of this pronoun set could date back to at least the ), and ''se'', ''sim'', ''sis'' (quoted in the Liverpool Echo ). Some people believe that the current form has been in use since the 1980s .

''Hir'' probably comes from patching together ''his'', ''him'', and ''her'' – sharing the common "h" and taking an "i" from ''his'' or ''him'' and an "r" from ''her''. Alternatively, it might come from the pronoun ''hir'' in Chaucer 's English, meaning "her". Once you have ''hir'', extending it to ''hirs'' and ''hirself'' is quite natural.

One theory for the origin of ''sie'' is that it came from S(he), I(t), (h)E. Another is that it was borrowed from the German ''sie'', which means you, she, her, they, or them depending on context and/or capitalisation.


PRONUNCIATION GUIDE


Like many neologisms introduced on the internet, different people Pronounce these words in different ways. The most common pronunciations are included here, along with pronunciation guides — see the International Phonetic Alphabet For English to decode them.
  • Sie or . About three quarters of people in a quick sample of usenet said they pronounced this roughly like ''see'' , while the rest said they pronounced it roughly like ''zee'' , as the German word is.

  • Hir or . About three quarters of the sample said they pronounced this roughly like ''hear'' , while the rest said they pronounced it roughly like ''her'' .

  • Hirs and '''Hirself''' — extended from ''hir'' in the way you'd expect: adding an "s" or ''self'' sound onto the end. Of course, this can vary depending on how you choose to pronounce ''hir''.



PROBLEMS WITH "SIE" AND "HIR"


These are some of the arguments some people make against these pronouns:

  • There are existing solutions, such as Singular ''they'' , or the neutral third person ''it'', that render neologisms unnecessary.


  • ''Sie'' and ''hir'', unlike ''they'', have not evolved naturally in spoken English. Instead they have been imposed artificially. Historically, such examples of language have not had significant staying power.


  • ''Sie'' and ''hir'' are unintuitive and cumbersome.


  • The variation in pronunciation and the similarity to the corresponding female pronouns and other words could cause confusion.


  • In proper English usage, the male pronouns are historically also gender-neutral pronouns.


  • ''Sie'' and ''hir'' have a pronouns as gender-free terms.)


  • A gender-neutral pronoun system does not affect gender discrimination in the society using that system. The languages of Turkey and Iran both have gender-neutral pronoun systems, although discrimination against women and sexual minorities is rampant in those countries.



VARIANTS


  • Zie And Zir were introduced slightly later to correct the perceived female bias of ''sie'' and ''hir''. The Z is pronounced similarly to ''tz''. This pronoun set is now thought to be about as common as ''sie'' and ''hir'', though neither are widespread.


  • Kate Bornstein uses ''ze'' and ''hir'' throughout her book ''My Gender Workbook''.


  • '' Xe '' is another common replacement for ''sie''


  • '' Ve '' is used by Greg Egan in some of his stories.


  • ''Shi'' is sometimes seen as an alternative to ''sie'', especially among the Furry Fandom . It is pronounced like ''shay''. Some also pronounce ''hir'' similar to ''hair'', or the German ''herr''.


  • People commonly use '' They '' and ''them'' when they are talking about an indefinite person and feel the need to use a gender-neutral pronoun.



REFERENCES