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Q&A What pronoun should a hermaphrodite species use?

I don't have this problem in my writing, but this would be my suggestion: If they are not distinguished by gender, then you need a general term any random person. I would latch onto something they ...

posted 6y ago by Amadeus‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-19T22:13:21Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/34473
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T08:21:46Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/34473
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T08:21:46Z (almost 5 years ago)
I don't have this problem in my writing, but this would be my suggestion: If they are not distinguished by gender, then you need a general term any random person. I would latch onto something they do have in common: They are all persons, citizens, or subjects. Or at least when their language formed, they referred to their group of people as something; fellows, members, soldiers, partners. In the USA we now refer to soldiers of either gender as Troops; a squad of twenty troops may be all female, all male, or any mixture. It isn't a stretch to think the plural _Troops_ becomes the singular pronoun _Troop_. Much like **_Cop_** stands for a police officer of either gender. Or **_Kid_** or **_Child_** is genderless.

So here are suggestions: It may be common in their language to use **_Child_** as the pronoun for everyone, everyone is a child of somebody, after all.

Another choice is to take a generalization they all share and explain that in their language the pronoun is a single syllable that means **_Subject of a Ruler_** , so in English they say **_Sub_**.

Or **_Citizen_** becomes **_Cit_**. Or, if the earliest history of the species was particularly militant (which is not inconsistent with their current elevated condition), perhaps in their language every adult is a **_Soldier_** and every child is **_Child_**.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-03-21T15:05:58Z (over 6 years ago)
Original score: 4