The Office of Diversity’s Beyond the Letters: LBTQIA+ presentation by L. Hoss Brown on October 6 included a discussion of non-cis pronouns that might sound strange to the less informed but has importance in a fluid linguistic environment.
The term cis comes from the word cisgender. A male born with a penis who identifies as man and a female born with a vagina who identifies as woman are considered a cisgender man and a cis gender woman, or more concisely put, cis.
Those not identifying with assigned gender at birth includes transgender, nonbinary, or gender non-conforming all falling under an umbrella term, non-cis.
The cis, feminine and masculine pronouns, she, her, hers, he, him and his don’t apply to everyone. Use of the words it, he-she and she-he are offensive slurs and are not acceptable.
More than five years ago, the terms they/them/theirs became commonly known gender-neutral pronouns used as a singular subject and plural verb.
More recently the words ze/hir/hirs are heard. For example, Robin ate hir desert because ze was hungry. Ze is pronounced like zee with alternate spellings of ze, zie or xe and replaces he/she/they. Hir is pronounced like here and replaces her/hers/him/his/they/theirs.
Some people prefer that their proper name be used without a pronoun substitution. For example, Joe ate Joe’s lunch because Joe was hungry.
Recognition for some of these terms have arrived. In 1933, the game of Scrabble was invented, but it continues to be updated. Scrabble dictionaries are used to check on suspect words played on the board. According the New York Times, in 2019 some 28,000 words were added to the Scrabble Dictionary including the 11 point word ze but xe, zie, hir, hirs, have been left out.
