On Sun, Mar 19, 2017 at 07:57:07PM -0700, dian_cecht@zoho.com wrote: On Sun, 19 Mar 2017 17:40:27 -0500 Christopher Allan Webber wrote: > The important thing is to not assume someone's preferred pronouns > without knowing them. Singular they isn't your only option; I also > happen to like Spivak pronouns: > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spivak_pronoun The problem here is that I'd be suprised if many people have even heard about these. I used to play MUDs quite a bit and have /never/ heard any of those. They are certainly not a part of common usage, and I'd say should be avoided for something more standard (them et al). It's a nice idea, but overall seems like it would cause confusion, and probably more than a few "Hey, there is a typo in the manual"-type bugs than anything. At least, if I picked up a random bit of documentation and saw things like "e" used constantly, I'd assume it was a typo and not some archaic gender-neutral pronoun. I tend to agree. These invented aspects of language are kindof fun for informal use but out of place in a user manual. In a manual we should stick to proper English - put yourself in the position of a person who is learning English as a second language. That person has spent months attending language school and is starting to become confident then picks up a manual and sees the words "pis" and "per". It's enough to throw you off your stride. (I remember something similar happening to me when learning a foriegn language: I started reading a novel, and there was lots of dialogue all in regional dialect. I felt like giving up.) Fortunately in a user manual one very rarely needs a personal *definite* pronoun. In GNU manuals, the long standing practise is to refer to the person using the program, as "you". Occasionally a personal *indefinite* pronoun is called for and luckily in English we have a perfect gender neutral one, viz: "one". Some authors religiously avoid the whole issue altogether by writing every sentence in the passive voice - but that makes the manual extremely hard to understand even for very patient readers. When writing texts, such as this email, and absolutely *have* to use a personal definite pronoun, I default to "she" because whereas vigilantes will pounce upon you whenever they see "he" (ironically those people are invariably male), I've never had anyone complain when "she" occurs where the gender of the subject might well be masculine. ... and yes. If an individual specifically requests to be referred to by a partcular set of pronouns I will attempt to do so, but may occasionally forget if that person wants feminine pronouns and is 6'4" and has an enormous black wiry beard. J' -- Avoid eavesdropping. Send strong encrypted email. PGP Public key ID: 1024D/2DE827B3 fingerprint = 8797 A26D 0854 2EAB 0285 A290 8A67 719C 2DE8 27B3 See http://sks-keyservers.net or any PGP keyserver for public key.