On Non-Binary Pronouns, and How People Use Them For Me
Because guess what! They actually do! Wow!!
My pronoun is "co." The complete set (collect them all!) is co/co/cos/cos/coself. The order there parallels I/me/my/my/myself, or they/them/their/theirs/themself. I also like the "they" set as a backup.
So, for example, "Cor is writing this post for cos blog, because co has found coself irritated by people believing co could never find anyone to actually address co by the proper pronouns. Hah!"
Why are those your pronouns?
They fit. They feel right. Isn't that why anyone is comfortable with ("prefers") a certain pronoun? --it doesn't make you double-take? Doesn't chafe? For me, "co" fits like a well-tailored outfit, and "they" is like a decent fit off the rack.
They're hella cool and I love them. Like, etymologically, phonetically, all of the linguistic-nerd-that-I-am ways. Who doesn't want pronouns that sort-of-loosely-mean "comrade"? (Trick question: plenty of people who prefer other pronouns, duh.)
People find them intuitive! I know right! Weird! It probably has something to do with how they're related to my name, function as a nickname, that sort of thing. I could also theorize about how some people find it easier to adapt to an entirely new pronoun, rather than try to modify their existing schema (mental map) for one they already use, but....well, I'll leave the linguistics out of it, yeah?
Who the heck actually uses that?
Hm, let's see. Some of: my family, my coworkers, my friends, my clients at work, my acquaintances, my therapist, my doctor, newspapers and journal articles, playbills, strangers on the internet... And, y'know. The communes that I found it from.
Sure, it's not all or nothing. Some people just use my whole name, the whole time. My dad is really good at not using pronouns at all; he is a master syntactician that way (and he didn't even go to school for it!). Other people find singular "they" easier, maybe because they have more practice with it, or just because that's how their brains work.
Also, just for the record: no, unfortunately, not all of these people are non-binary and/or trans* themselves. Sigh! What a lovely world that would be.
Totally way. For years now, in fact. Several of them.
PS:Yes, my pronouns are in the Wikipedia article on "Gender-Neutral Pronouns." Look closer...no, above the table.... There you go! Holy cow, it's on Wiktionary too?! And it was derived from Indo-European all linguistic-like by someone who also suggested singular 'they', back in the '70s?? :OO!!!! It's like there's a rich history to all this stuff or something!!
