Pronoun

"We must remember that the English pronoun system is not fixed. Several centuries ago the objective plural you drove the nominative and objective singulars thou and thee and the nominative plural ye out of general use. It appears to have happened for social reasons, not linguistic reasons. They, their, them have been used continuously for six centuries, and have been disparaged in such use for about two centuries."

- —Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage, 1994

A pronoun (abbreviated pro) is a word that substitutes for a noun or noun phrase. For transgender, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming people, choosing a preferred pronoun may be a very important part of gender presentation and how that person perceives their gender.

The adjective associated with "pronoun" is "pronominal". A pronominal is also a word or phrase that acts as a pronoun. For example, in That's not the one I need, the phrase the one is a pronominal.

Personal gender pronouns may be called "preferred" pronouns, but this phrasing can imply that using someone's pronouns is optional, and has fallen out of use.

Grammar
Pronouns (antōnymía) are listed as one of eight parts of speech in The Art of Grammar, a treatise on Greek grammar attributed to Dionysius Thrax and dating from the 2nd century BC. The pronoun is described there as "a part of speech substitutable for a noun and marked for a person." Pronouns continued to be regarded as a part of speech in Latin grammar (the Latin term being pronomen, from which the English name – through Middle French – ultimately derives), and thus in the European tradition generally.

In more modern approaches, pronouns are less likely to be considered to be a single word class, because of the many different syntactic roles that they play, as represented by the various different types of pronouns listed in the previous sections.

English Personal Pronouns
English pronouns have a number of different contexts:

Personal and possessive
Personal pronouns may be classified by person, number, gender and case. English has three persons (first, second and third) and two numbers (singular and plural). Most commonly recognized in the third person singular there are also distinct pronoun forms for male, female and neutral gender.

Exipronouns
Main article: Exipronoun

Exipronoun was coined to compliment the word neopronouns and refers to he/she/they/it; "Traditional" pronouns that are more commonly used.

Neopronouns
Main article: Neopronoun

Neopronouns are are any set of singular third person pronouns that are not officially recognized in the language they are used in, typically created with the intent of being a gender neutral pronoun set.

Nounself
Main article: Nounself

Nounself pronouns are a subset of neopronouns that are more directly based on words, often nouns.

History
It is unclear where the word "nounself" itself was first coined, although it may be on Tumblr because of the amount of popularity that nounself sets gained, starting in 2015.

Thonself
The earliest example of what could be called a nounself pronoun was proposed by by American lawyer Charles Crozat Converse in 1884. Converse took the words "this one" and "that one" and proposed thon as a gender-neutral pronoun set."thon. Pronoun of the 3rd person, common gender, meaning “that one, he she, or it”: a neoterism proposed by Charles Crozat Converse, and apparently complying with the neoteristic canons, since it supplies an antecedent blank, obeys a simple and obvious analogy, and is euphonious."

- —Funk and Wagnalls, Supplement to A Standard Dictionary of the English Language, 1903 For most of the 20th century, thon appeared in various publications of Funk and Wagnalls, and also spread to another dictionary, Merriam-Webster’s Second New International Dictionary (1934 edition). Thon was removed from abridged dictionary in the third edition.

Humanist Pronouns
Often called humanist pronouns, hu/hum/hus/hus/humself was used in several college humanities texts published by Bandanna Books and originated by editor Sasha Newborn in 1982.

Faeself And Others
One of the most commonly recognized nounself pronoun sets is fae/faer, first seen online in 2013. "Okay, so!''

Why did I choose fae/vaer as my pronouns?

Because I am fae. I am described as such by people who don’t know me — fae and feline and not-exactly-human. I do identify as faen, and in some ways angel as well, and fae and angel are the goals of my presentation. My choice of fae as a pronoun reflects this.

Using fae as a pronoun started out half a joke, a 1am offhand comment that fae would be one of the only things I could use as a pronoun and identify with. The next morning, it wasn’t so much a joke anymore, and by the end of the day my girlfriend and I had come up with how fae would work as a pronoun.

''To address the point about fae as binary or not — it depends on your source material. My personal view on this is that fae and fae creatures as stand outside the binary. They probably have some form of gender, but it’s most definitely not our human binary. Angels, on the other hand, are genderless. They have no sex and they have no gender. Together, fae and angels are the two sides of androgyny that are possible, and kind of form a secondary arc around the male/female binary: that of gendered/genderless.''

''…so in some ways, I’m using fae as a giant ‘fuck you’ to the gender binary and a refusal of much of the American culture surrounding gender. My gender is yes. Except when it’s no. Either way, it’s not male or female and using a pronoun that is very associated with creatures that stand outside humankind is, for me at least, a very good way to remind people of this constantly."

- Eidolan

Emojiself
Main article: Emojiself

Emojiself pronouns are a subset of neopronouns and nounself pronouns that replace the content of the pronoun entirely with an emoji.

List of pronouns
See main article: Pronoun/List

Misgendering
See main article: Misgendering

Using the incorrect pronouns for someone when you are aware of their pronouns is misgendering. Misgendering is an act of erasure and transphobia, which has been linked to mental health struggles and suicide. The U.S. Transgender Survey states that 54% of those living with unsupportive families, where their family members may misgender them, had attempted suicide within their lifetime. 37% of those with supportive families had attempted suicide at some point of their lives.

"Because names and pronouns are the two ways people call and refer to others, they are personal and important. They are also key facets of our identity. Therefore, calling someone by the wrong name or “misgendering” them by using incorrect pronouns can feel disrespectful, harmful and even unsafe."

- Let’s Get It Right: Using Correct Pronouns and Names "According to the World Health Organization, violence is referred to as “the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation.” When someone intentionally misgenders a transgender person, it can be noted as psychological abuse. Misgendering is dehumanizing; when you purposefully disregard someone’s gender, simply because they are not like you, it can lead to mental and physical harm."

- Intentionally Misgendering Transgender People is Considered Violence

Flags
Like other parts of a person's identity, like their gender or orientation (or even their kink or disability), flags may be made specifically for pronouns. Unlike other facets of queer identity, pronoun flags at large don't follow any real common convention. Flags for pronouns vary wildly in design, number of stripes, and symbols used. A pronoun flag format called "pronoun path" is used by Tumblr user mothpride. This refers to a specific design of flag that uses two overlapping stripes, with each flag being unaligned with any identity, just pronouns. The first example of this format being used was posted November 10th, 2020, and the term "pronoun path" was first used in another post the same day.

In 2021, Ezgender designed a proposed "standard pronoun template" and released a free online template for it.