View source for Gender in English

{{Short description|none}} <!-- "none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see [[WP:SDNONE]] -->
{{Grammar series}}
A system of [[grammatical gender]], whereby every [[noun]] was treated as either masculine, feminine, or neuter, existed in [[Old English]], but fell out of use during the [[Middle English]] period; therefore, [[Modern English]] largely does not have grammatical gender. Modern English lacks grammatical gender in the sense of all [[noun class]]es requiring masculine, feminine, or neuter [[inflection]] or [[Agreement (linguistics)#Gender|agreement]]; however, it does retain features relating to [[natural gender]] with particular nouns and [[pronoun]]s (such as ''woman'', ''daughter'', ''husband'', ''uncle'', ''he'' and ''she'') to refer specifically to persons or animals of one or other sexes and neuter pronouns (such as ''it'') for sexless objects. Also, in some cases, [[#Personal pronouns|feminine pronouns]] are used by some speakers when referring to ships (and more uncommonly some airplanes and analogous machinery), to churches, and to nation states and islands.

Usage in English has evolved with regards to an emerging preference for [[gender-neutral language]]. There is now large-scale use of [[singular they|epicene ''they'']] as a third-person singular instead of the default generic ''he'' when referring to a person of unknown gender. Certain traditional feminine forms of nouns (such as ''authoress'' and ''poetess'') are also increasingly avoided, with the male form of such nouns (''author'' and ''poet'') having become gender-neutral.<ref>Stevenson, Angus (ed.) (2010). ''Oxford Dictionary of English'', 3rd Ed., Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York, p. 598. {{ISBN|978-0-19-957112-3}}.</ref>

==Gender in Old English==
{{further|Old English grammar}}
[[Old English]] had a system of grammatical gender similar to that of modern [[German language|German]], with three genders: masculine, feminine, neuter. [[determiner (class)|Determiner]]s and [[attributive adjective]]s showed gender inflection in [[agreement (linguistics)|agreement]] with the noun they modified. Also the nouns themselves followed different declension patterns depending on their gender. Moreover, the third-person [[personal pronouns]], as well as [[interrogative word|interrogative]] and [[relative pronoun]]s, were chosen according to the grammatical gender of their [[antecedent (grammar)|antecedent]].

Old English grammatical gender was, as in other [[Germanic languages]], remarkably opaque: that is, one often could not know the gender of a noun by its meaning or by the form of the word; this was especially true for nouns referencing inanimate objects. Learners would have had to simply memorize which word has which gender.<ref name="jones">{{Cite book|title=Grammatical gender in English, 950 to 1250|author=Jones, Charles|date=1988|publisher=Croom Helm|isbn=0709914768|location=London|oclc=16404179}}</ref>{{rp|10}} Although nouns referring to human males were generally masculine and for the most part words for human females were feminine, as Charles Jones noted, "it is with those nouns which show explicit female reference that the sex specifying function of the gender classification system appears to break down,{{Spaces}}..." Most words referencing human females were feminine, but there was a sizable number of words that were either neuter or even masculine.<ref name=jones />{{rp|6–7}} Here are the discrepant nouns referring specifically to human females as listed by Jones:<ref name=jones />{{rp|7}}

{| class="wikitable collapsible"
!Noun !! Gender !! Meaning !! Modern cognates 
|-
!æwe 
| <span style="color:#008000">'''neut.'''</span> || "married woman" || 
|-
!broþorwif 
| <span style="color:#008000">'''neut.'''</span> || "brother's wife" || 
|-
!fæmenhadesmon 
| <span style="color:#0000FF">'''masc.'''</span> || (of a woman) "virgin" || 
|-
!foligerwif 
| <span style="color:#008000">'''neut.'''</span> || "prostitute" || 
|-
!forþwif 
| <span style="color:#008000">'''neut.'''</span>  || "matron" || 
|-
!freowif 
| <span style="color:#008000">'''neut.'''</span>  || "freewoman" || 
|-
!hiredwifmon 
| <span style="color:#0000FF">'''masc.'''</span> || "female member of a household" || 
|-
!lærningmægden 
| <span style="color:#008000">'''neut.'''</span>  || "female pupil" || 
|-
!mædencild 
| <span style="color:#008000">'''neut.'''</span>  || "female child" || 
|-
!mægden 
| <span style="color:#008000">'''neut.'''</span>  || "young girl" || English ''maid'', ''maiden'';<br> German ''das Mädchen'' 
|-
!mægdenman 
| <span style="color:#0000FF">'''masc.'''</span> || (of a woman) "virgin" || 
|-
!mægþman 
| <span style="color:#0000FF">'''masc.'''</span> || (of a woman) "virgin" || 
|-
!mennenu 
| <span style="color:#008000">'''neut.'''</span>  || "handmaiden" || 
|-
!næmenwif 
| <span style="color:#008000">'''neut.'''</span>  || "married woman" || 
|-
!sigewif  
| <span style="color:#008000">'''neut.'''</span>  || "victorious woman" || 
|-
!siþwif 
| <span style="color:#008000">'''neut.'''</span>  || "noble lady" || 
|-
!unrihtwif 
| <span style="color:#008000">'''neut.'''</span>  || "mistress" || 
|-
!wif 
| <span style="color:#008000">'''neut.'''</span>  || "woman" || English ''wife'';<br>German ''das Weib'' 
|-
!wifcild 
| <span style="color:#008000">'''neut.'''</span>  || "female child" || 
|-
!wiffreond 
| <span style="color:#0000FF">'''masc.'''</span> || "female friend" || 
|-
!wifhand 
| <span style="color:#0000FF">'''masc.'''</span> || "heiress" || 
|-
!wifmann 
| <span style="color:#0000FF">'''masc.'''</span> || "woman" || English ''woman'' 
|-
!wynmæg
| <span style="color:#008000">'''neut.'''</span> || "winsome maid" || 
|-
!yrfenuma 
| <span style="color:#008000">'''neut.'''</span>  || "female heir" || 
|-
|}

Old English had multiple generic nouns for "woman" stretching across all three genders: for example, in addition to the neuter {{wikt-lang|ang|wif}} and the masculine {{wikt-lang|ang|wifmann}} listed above, there was also the feminine {{wikt-lang|ang|frowe}}.<ref name=jones />{{rp|6}} For the gender-neutral nouns for "child", there was the neuter {{wikt-lang|ang|bearn}} and the neuter {{wikt-lang|ang|cild}} (compare English ''child''). And even with nouns referring to persons, one could not always determine gender by meaning or form: for example, with two words ending in ''-mæg'', there was the female-specific '''neuter''' noun {{wikt-lang|ang|wynmæg}}, meaning "winsome maid" or attractive woman; as well as the gender-neutral noun meaning "paternal kindred" or member of father's side of the family, but which was grammatically '''feminine''': {{wikt-lang|ang|fædernmæg}}.<ref name=jones />{{rp|7–8}}

In short, inanimate objects are frequently referred to by gendered pronouns, and, conversely, there exist nouns referring to people having a grammatical gender that does not match their natural gender. Nonetheless, in Old English, pronouns may follow natural gender rather than grammatical gender in some cases. For details of the declension patterns and pronoun systems, see [[Old English grammar]].

==Decline of grammatical gender==
While inflectional reduction seems to have been incipient in the English language itself, some theories suggest that it was accelerated by contact with [[Old Norse]], especially in northern and midland dialects.<ref name = "Curzan 2003 53">{{Harvnb|Curzan|2003|p=53}}.</ref> This correlates with the geographical extent of the Viking [[Danelaw]] in the late [[9th century in England|9th]] and early [[10th century in England|10th]] centuries: for almost a century Norse constituted a [[Prestige (sociolinguistics)|prestige language]] with regard to the southern [[Northumbrian Old English|Northumbrian]] and east [[Mercian dialect|Mercian]] dialects of Old English.

By the 11th century, the role of grammatical gender in Old English was beginning to decline:<ref>{{Harvnb|Curzan|2003|pp=84, 86}}: "[T]he major gender shift for inanimate nouns in written texts occurs in late Old English/early Middle English, but {{Nowrap|[...]}} the seeds of change are already present in Old English before 1000 AD."</ref> the [[Middle English]] of the 13th century was in transition to the loss of a gender system.<ref name=lass/><ref>{{Harvnb|Curzan|2003|p=86}}: "[G]rammatical gender remained healthy in the personal pronouns through late Old English; it is not until early Middle English that the balance of gender concord in the pronouns tips towards natural gender, at least in the written language."</ref> One element of this process was the change in the functions of the words ''the'' and ''that'' (then spelt ''[[Thorn (letter)|þ]]e'' and ''[[Thorn (letter)|þ]]at''; see also [[Old English determiners]]): previously these had been non-neuter and neuter forms respectively of a single [[determiner]], but in this period ''the'' came to be used generally as a definite article and ''that'' as a [[demonstrative]]: both thus ceased to manifest any gender differentiation.<ref>{{cite book|last=Shinkawa|first=Seiji|title=Unhistorical Gender Assignment in Laʒamon's Brut|year=2012|publisher=Peter Lang|location=Switzerland}}</ref> The loss of gender classes was part of a general decay of [[Inflection#Examples in English|inflectional endings]] and [[Old English declension|declensional classes]] by the end of the 14th century.<ref name=hellinger/>

Gender loss began in the north of England; the south-east and the south-west Midlands were the most linguistically conservative regions, and Kent retained traces of gender in the 1340s.<ref name="lass">{{cite book|last=Lass|first=Roger|editor=Richard M. Hogg, David Denison|title=A history of the English language|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U5FDi8WksqYC&pg=PA70|year=2006|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0-521-66227-3|page=70|chapter=Phonology and morphology}}</ref> [[Middle English#Chancery Standard|Late 14th-century London English]] had almost completed the shift away from grammatical gender,<ref name=lass/> and Modern English retains no [[morphology (linguistics)|morphological]] agreement of words with grammatical gender.<ref name="hellinger">{{cite book|last1=Hellinger|first1=Marlis|last2=Bussmann|first2=Hadumod|title=Gender across languages: the linguistic representation of women and men|chapter=English — Gender in a global language|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aBMX57viyRwC&pg=PA107|volume=1|year=2001|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company|isbn=90-272-1841-2|page=107}}</ref>

==Modern English==
Gender is no longer an inflectional category in [[Modern English]].<ref>Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K. Pullum, ''[[The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language]]'' (2002).</ref> Traces of the Old English gender system are found in the system of pronouns. Nonetheless, Modern English assumes a "natural" interpretation of gender affiliation,<ref name="Ryan">{{cite journal |last1=Ryan |first1=John M. |title=The Proof is in the Pronoun: Grammatical and Semantic Gender in Anglo Saxon |journal=Athens Journal of Philology |date=December 2017 |volume=4 |issue=4 |page=257 |doi=10.30958/ajp/4.4.1 |url=https://www.athensjournals.gr/philology/2017-4-4-1-Ryan.pdf |access-date=3 November 2020|doi-access=free }}</ref> which is based on the [[sex]], or perceived sexual characteristics, of the pronoun's [[reference|referent]]. Exceptions to this generality are few and debatable, for example [[Anaphora (linguistics)|anaphoric]] ''she'' referring to ships, machines, and countries<ref name="Ryan" /> (see below). Another manifestation of natural gender that continues to function in English is the use of certain nouns to refer specifically to persons or animals of a particular sex: ''widow/widower'', ''postman/postwoman'' etc.

Linguist [[Benjamin Whorf]] described grammatical gender in English as a [[Covert (linguistics)|covert]] grammatical category. He argued that gender as a property inherent in nouns (rather than in their referents) is not entirely absent from modern English, citing [[given name]]s such as "Jane" and words like "daughter", which are normally paired with gendered pronouns even if the speaker does not know the person being referred to.<ref>Whorf, Benjamin Lee  (1945). 'Grammatical Categories', ''Language'' 21: 1–11.</ref> Linguist [[Robert A. Hall Jr.]] argued that these are simply examples of [[natural gender]] and not [[grammatical gender]], as daughters are always female and people named Jane are overwhelmingly likely to be female. Moreover, if a person named Jane is a man, there is nothing grammatically incorrect with saying "Jane is bringing his friends over."<ref name="Hall1951">{{cite journal |last1=Hall |first1=Robert A. |title=Sex Reference and Grammatical Gender in English |journal=American Speech |date=1951 |volume=26 |issue=3 |pages=170–172 |doi=10.2307/453074 |issn=0003-1283|jstor=453074 }}</ref>

===Personal pronouns===
{{further|Third-person pronoun#English}}
The third-person singular [[English personal pronouns|personal pronouns]] are chosen according to the natural gender of their [[antecedent (grammar)|antecedent]] or [[reference|referent]]. As a general rule:
*''[[he (pronoun)|he]]'' (and its related forms ''him'', ''himself'', ''his'') is used when the referent is male, or something to which male characteristics are attributed;
*''[[she (pronoun)|she]]'' (and ''her'', ''herself'', ''hers'') is used when the referent is female, or is an object personified as female<ref name="Hall1951"/> – this is common with vessels such as [[ship]]s and airplanes, and sometimes with countries. An example is in ''[[God Bless America]]'': "Stand beside her, and guide her through the night with a light from above."
*''[[it (pronoun)|it]]'' (and ''itself'', ''its'') is used when the referent is something inanimate or intangible, a non-animal life-form such as a plant, an animal of unknown sex, or, less often, a child when the sex is unspecified or deemed unimportant.<ref>{{Harvnb|Curzan|2003|pp=2, 23}}</ref> ''It'' is also used in the interrogative for people in some phrases such as, "Who is it?".

Pronoun agreement is generally with the natural gender of the referent (the person or thing denoted) rather than simply the antecedent (a noun or [[noun phrase]] which the pronoun replaces). For example, one might say either ''the doctor and his patients'' or ''the doctor and her patients'', depending on one's knowledge or assumptions about the sex of the doctor in question, as the phrase ''the doctor'' (the antecedent) does not itself have any specific natural gender. Also, pronouns are sometimes used without any explicit antecedent. However, as described above (the example with ''child'' and ''daughter''), the choice of pronoun may also be affected by the particular noun used in the antecedent.

(When the antecedent is a collective noun, such as ''family'' or ''team'', and the pronoun refers to the members of the group denoted rather than the group as a single entity, a [[plural]] pronoun may be chosen: compare ''the family and its origins''; ''the family and their breakfast-time arguments''. See also [[synesis]].)

When the referent is a person of unknown or unspecified sex, several different options are possible:
*use of ''he or she'', ''he/she'', ''s/he'', etc.
*alternation or random mixture of ''she'' and ''he''
*use of [[singular they|singular ''they'']] (common especially in informal language)
*use of ''it'' (normally only considered when the referent is a young child)
*use of [[generic he|generic ''he'']] (traditional, but not recommended by modern grammars)

====Animals====

In principle, animals are triple-gender nouns, being able to take masculine, feminine and neuter pronouns. However, animals viewed as less important to humans, also known as ‘lower animals’, are generally referred to using ''it''; higher (domestic) animals may more often be referred to using ''he'' and ''she'', when their sex is known.<ref name=Siemund>{{cite book |last=Siemund |first=Peter |title=Pronominal Gender in English: A Study of English Varieties form a Cross-Linguistic Perspective |year=2008 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York}}</ref> If the sex of the animal is not known, the masculine pronoun is often used with a sex-neutral meaning.<ref name=Siemund/> For example:

''Person A: Ah, there's a spider''

''Person B: Well put '''him''' outside''<ref name=Siemund/>

Animate pronouns ''he'' and ''she'' are usually applied to animals when personification and/or individuation occurs.<ref name=Siemund/> Personification occurs whenever human attributes are applied to the noun.<ref name=Siemund/> For example:

	''A widow bird sat mourning for '''her''' love.''<ref name=Siemund/>

Specifically named animals are an example of individuation, such as ''Peter Rabbit'' or ''Blob the Whale''.<ref name=Siemund/> In these instances, it is more likely that animate pronouns ''he'' or ''she'' will be used to represent them.<ref name=Siemund/>

These rules also apply to other triple-gender nouns, including ideas, inanimate objects, and words like ''infant'' and ''child''.<ref name=Siemund/>

====Metaphorical gender====
<!-- This section is linked from [[Grammatical gender]] and [[Third-person pronoun]] -->
Gendered pronouns are occasionally applied to sexless objects in English, such as [[ship]]s, [[tool]]s, or [[robot]]s. This is known as metaphorical gender (as opposed to [[natural gender|natural]] or [[grammatical gender]]).<ref name="Druide">{{cite web |title=Metaphorical Gender in English: Feminine Boats, Masculine Tools and Neuter Animals |url=https://www.druide.com/en/reports/metaphorical-gender-english-feminine-boats-masculine-tools-and-neuter-animals |website=Druide |access-date=6 December 2019 |date=October 2017}}</ref> This [[personification]] of objects is usually done for poetic effect or to show strong emotional attachment.<ref name="Druide"/>

Although the use of ''she'' and ''he'' for inanimate objects is not very frequent in Standard Modern English, it is fairly widespread in some varieties of English.<ref name=Siemund/> Gender assignment to inanimate nouns in these dialects is sometimes fairly systematic. For example, in some dialects of southwest England, masculine pronouns are used for individuated or countable matter, such as iron tools, while the neuter form is used for non-individuated matter, such as liquids, fire and other substances.<ref name=Siemund/><ref>Examples of the use of ''his'' in reference to an inanimate object in Early Modern English (Shakespeare, King James Bible) are usually just relics of an earlier system where the possessive (genitive) form of the neuter pronoun ''it'' was not ''its'' as it is in English today but ''his'', i.e. ''his'' was originally the possessive of both ''he'' and ''it'', with ''its'' gradually overtaking ''his'' in this function and predominating after 1600, although ''his'' for ''its'' continues to be found sporadically well after this, especially in more conservative texts. Thus, in examples such as the following from the [[King James Bible]] (or [[Authorized Version]]), ''his'' should not be interpreted as an example of metaphorical gender, with the use of a gendered pronoun in reference to ''salt'', but simply as the older form of ''its'' (in keeping with the very conservative English of the King James Bible): "Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost '''his''' savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men." (Gospel of St Matthew, v,13)</ref>

One common use of metaphorical gender is referring to named ships as ''she''. This is the case even for ships named after men, such as [[HMS King George V (41)|HMS ''King George V'']]; otherwise, the gender of inanimate objects with proper names tends to match the gender connotation of the name. The origins of this practice are not certain, and it is currently in decline and sometimes considered offensive. In modern English it is advised against by ''[[The Chicago Manual of Style]]'',<ref>''The Chicago Manual of Style'', 17th edition, p. 514.  2017.  {{ISBN|0-226-28705-X}}.</ref> ''[[New York Times Manual of Style and Usage]]'', and ''[[The Associated Press Stylebook]]''.  The [[Cambridge Dictionary]] considers the practice "old-fashioned".<ref>[https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/she Meaning of she in English]</ref>

The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' dates written examples of calling ships ''she'' to at least 1308 (in the [[Middle English]] period), in materials translated from French, which has [[grammatical gender]].<ref>[https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/are-ships-cars-nations-called-she Are Ships, Cars, and Nations Always Called 'She'?]</ref>  One modern source claims that ships were treated as masculine in early English, and that this changed to feminine by the sixteenth century.<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20100302044714/http://www.lib.mq.edu.au/all/journeys/ships/glossary.html Glossary of Nautical Terms (As used in the late 18th and early 19th centuries)</ref>{{unreliable source?|date=November 2019}} In the 1640 ''English Grammar'', author Ben Jonson unambiguously documents the neuter gender "under which are comprised all ''inanimate'' things, a ''ship'' excepted: of whom we say ''she sails'' well, though the name be Hercules, or Henry, or the Prince."<ref>p. 80-81 [https://archive.org/details/englishgrammar00jons <!-- quote=ship. -->] ""</ref> Various folk theories on the origin include the tradition of naming of ships after [[goddesses]], well-known women, female family members or objects of affection (though ships have male and non-personal names), the tradition of having a female [[Figurehead (object)|figurehead]] on the front of the ship (though men and animals are also used as figureheads), [[ship sponsor]]s (generally held by women by tradition) and various justifications (many satirical) comparing the attributes of ships with women.<ref>For example, the U.S. Navy history office says it was due to ships giving life and sustenance like a mother.[https://web.archive.org/web/20070203092454/https://www.history.navy.mil/trivia/trivia01.htm]  There are many popular satirical reasons and collections thereof, such as "it takes a lot of paint to keep her good-looking". [https://www.glossophilia.org/?p=1411]</ref>

''She'' is also sometimes used as an alternative to ''it'' for countries, when viewed as political entities.<ref name="Huddleston 2002 gender">{{Cite book|pages=488–489|last1=Huddleston |first1=Rodney |author-link1=Rodney Huddleston|last2= Pullum |first2= Geoffrey |author-link2=Geoffrey Pullum |title=The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language |date=2002 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge; New York |isbn=0-521-43146-8}}</ref>

====Transgender and non-binary people====

[[Preferred gender pronoun|Chosen pronouns]] are an element of [[gender expression]]. Many [[transgender]] people use the standard pronouns (''he'', ''she'', etc.) that match their [[gender identity]] rather than their sex assigned at birth. Referring to transgender people using natural gender pronouns according to their sex deduced at birth, known as [[misgendering]], is harmful and can be perceived as an insult or intentional offense if done deliberately, and embarrassing or hurtful if done accidentally. Many people with a [[non-binary gender]] identity use the [[Singular they|singular ''they'']].<ref name="gendercensus2020">{{cite web |title=Gender Census 2020: Worldwide Report |url=https://gendercensus.com/results/2020-worldwide/ |website=Gender Census |date=7 November 2020 |access-date=12 November 2020}}</ref> Others accept ''he'' and/or ''she'', alternate between ''he'' and ''she'', use any pronouns, or prefer gender-neutral pronouns (neopronouns)<ref>{{cite web |title=Neopronouns Explained |url=https://intercultural.uncg.edu/wp-content/uploads/Neopronouns-Explained-UNCG-Intercultural-Engagement.pdf |website=The Office of Intercultural Engagement |publisher=University of North Carolina at Greensboro |access-date=29 May 2022 |archive-date=15 November 2020 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20201115214336/https://intercultural.uncg.edu/wp-content/uploads/Neopronouns-Explained-UNCG-Intercultural-Engagement.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> such as xe/xem or ''[[Third-person pronoun#List of standard and non-standard third-person singular pronouns|zie]]''.<ref>{{cite news |last1= Binkley |first1= Collin |title= Pick your own pronoun at university. |url= http://www.pressreader.com/canada/toronto-star/20150919/281913066905634 |access-date=24 April 2016 |work=Toronto Star |agency= Associated Press |publisher= Toronto Star |date=19 September 2015 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170218010206/http://www.pressreader.com/canada/toronto-star/20150919/281913066905634 |archive-date=2017-02-18}}</ref>

===Other pronouns===
Other English pronouns are not subject to male/female distinctions, although in some cases a distinction between [[animacy|animate]] and inanimate referents is made. For example, the word ''[[who (pronoun)|who]]'' (as an [[interrogative word|interrogative]] or [[relative pronoun]]) refers to a person or people, and rarely to animals (although the possessive form ''whose'' can be used as a relative pronoun even when the antecedent is inanimate), while ''which'' and ''what'' refer to inanimate things (and non-human animals). Since these pronouns function on a binary gender system, distinguishing only between animate and inanimate entities, this suggests that English has a second gender system which contrasts with the primary gender system.<ref name=Siemund/>
Relative and interrogative pronouns do not encode number. This is shown in the following example:

''The man '''who''' lost his head ''vs.'' the men '''who''' lost their heads''<ref name=Siemund/>

Other pronouns which show a similar distinction include ''everyone/everybody'' vs. ''everything'', ''no one/nobody'' vs. ''nothing'', etc.

Nouns such as ''ship'' can be indicated by the feminine pronoun ''she'' but not the relative pronoun ''who''.

===Gender-specific words===
{{further|Gender marking in job titles}}
Apart from pronouns, gender can be marked in personal names and certain titles.<ref name="Cutler2015">{{Cite web|date=28 January 2015|title=Sexist Job Titles and the Influence of Language on Gender Stereotypes|url=https://humanities.byu.edu/sexist-job-titles-and-the-influence-of-language-on-gender-stereotypes/|last=Cutler|first=Sylvia|access-date=2 March 2024|website={{!}} College of Humanities|language=en-US}}</ref> Many words in modern English refer specifically to people or animals of a particular sex.<ref name="Siemund2008">{{cite book |last=Siemund |first=Peter |date=January 2008 |title=Pronominal Gender in English. A Study of English Varieties from a Cross-Linguistic Perspective |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/278406710 |doi=10.4324/9780203455944 |isbn=9780203455944 |access-date=2 March 2024}}</ref>

An example of an English word that has retained gender-specific spellings is the noun-form of [[blond|blond/blonde]], with the former being masculine and the latter being feminine. This distinction is retained primarily in British English.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://grammarist.com/usage/blond-blonde/|title=How to Use Blond vs. blonde Correctly|website=grammarist.com|date=22 June 2011 |access-date=2019-11-05}}</ref>

====Words that retain their gender-related spellings====
Certain words' spellings are indicative of their original grammatical genders, which may not correspond to their natural genders, for example ''[[wikt:abscissa|abscissa]]'', which is derived from a Latin feminine word. Certain foreign expressions used in English exhibit distinctions of grammatical gender, for example ''[[tabula rasa]]''.

Certain gender-indicative suffixes denoting humans eliminate any practical distinction between natural gender and grammatical gender (examples: ''[[wikt:-ess|-ess]]'' as in ''[[wikt:hostess|hostess]]'', ''[[waitress]]'', or ''[[stewardess]]''; and ''[[wikt:-trix|-trix]]'' as in ''[[executrix]]'' or ''[[dominatrix]]''). Some gender-related suffixes are almost never perceived as related to grammatical gender, for example ''[[wikt:-itis|-itis]]'', a suffix meaning inflammation, which is derived from Greek feminines.

Many words that retain their feminine endings refer to geographical regions (for example ''[[Africa]]'') and stars (for example ''lucida'').

===Regional variations===
Speakers of [[West Country English]] may use masculine (rather than neuter) pronouns with non-animate referents, as can be seen in [[Thomas Hardy]]'s works.

A similar case is found in [[Newfoundland English]]. Harold Paddock observed the following in 1981:
<blockquote>Nouns seem to possess a well defined but covert system of grammatical gender. We may call a noun ''masculine'', ''feminine'' or ''neuter'' depending on the pronouns which it selects in the singular. [[mass noun|Mass or non-count nouns]] (such as ''frost'', ''fog'', ''water'', ''love'') are called ''neuter'' because they select the pronoun ''it''. [[Count noun]]s divide into ''masculine'' and ''feminine''. Female humans and most female animals, as well as all types of vehicles (land, air and sea) are ''feminine'', in that they select the pronouns ''she'', ''her''. Other count nouns are masculine in that they select the pronouns ''he'', '''en''.<ref name="Wagner">{{cite thesis|title=Gender in English pronouns: Myth and reality|author=Wagner, Susanne|url=http://www.freidok.uni-freiburg.de/volltexte/1412/pdf/Diss_Freidok.pdf|date=2004-07-22|publisher=[[Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg|Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg]]|type=Doctoral thesis }}</ref>
</blockquote>

Examples of "masculine" nouns in Newfoundland English are ''hat'', ''shovel'', ''book'', and ''pencil''; "feminine" are ''boat'', ''aeroplane''; "neuter" nouns include ''water'', ''fog'', ''weather'', and ''snow''.<ref name="Wagner" />

Inanimate count nouns in Newfoundland Vernacular English differ from those in [[Standard English]] in that they are either masculine or feminine. Specifically, if an inanimate count noun denotes a mobile entity, then it is feminine; otherwise such a noun is masculine. Such a gender assignment is similar to but slightly different from that in Wessex Vernacular English. In Wessex Vernacular English, a non-human count noun (be it animate or not) is regarded as masculine, for example the word ''cow'' is considered as masculine.<ref name="Wagner" />

This feature is stigmatized, widely regarded as a lower class or incorrect way of speaking. Nonetheless, one may find such a gender assignment less counterintuitive as nouns such as ''ship'' and ''boat'' can be referred to by the feminine pronoun in Standard English.<ref name="Wagner" />

[[Australian English]] and [[New Zealand English]] both use the feminine dummy pronoun regularly in casual speech, such as in "[[she'll be right]]". This regular usage is particularly rare and not found elsewhere.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Meyerhoff |first1=Miriam |title=Review of Kortmann & Upton (2008): Varieties of English. 1, The British Isles |journal=Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages |date=1 September 2009 |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=367–371 |doi=10.1075/jpcl.24.2.07mey |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/248905455_Varieties_of_English_1_The_British_Isles}}</ref>

==Gender neutrality in English==
{{main article|Gender neutrality in English}}

Gender neutrality in English became a growing area of interest among academics during [[Second Wave Feminism]], when the work of [[structural linguistics|structuralist]] linguist [[Ferdinand de Saussure]] and his theories on [[semiotics]] became better known in academic circles.<ref name="Arcangeli2020">{{cite thesis |last=Arcangeli |first=Alice |date=2020 |title=Language, gender and sexism: an overview of English and Italian languages |url=https://thesis.unipd.it/bitstream/20.500.12608/11554/1/Arcangeli_Alice.pdf |publisher=[[Università degli Studi di Padova]] |access-date=2 March 2023}}</ref> By the 1960s and 1970s, [[post-structuralism|post-structuralist]] theorists, particularly in France, brought wider attention to gender-neutrality theory, and the concept of supporting gender equality through conscious changes to language.<ref name="Wooldridge2015">{{cite thesis |last=Wooldridge |first=Michael |date=15 May 2015 |title=Postructuralism and Feminism: The Interplay between Gender, Language and Power |url=https://www.e-ir.info/2015/05/22/postructuralism-and-feminism-the-interplay-between-gender-language-and-power/ |publisher=[[E-International Relations]] |access-date=2 March 2023}}</ref> Debates touched on such issues as changing the term "stewardess" to the gender-neutral "flight attendant", "fireman" to "firefighter", "mailman" to "mail carrier", and so on. At the root of this contentiousness may have been backlash against the English language's shift from "grammatical gender" to "natural gender" during the early Modern era,<ref>{{cite book|last=Meyer|first=Charles F.|title=Introducing English Linguistics International Student Edition|year=2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521152211|page=14}}</ref> coinciding with the spread of institutional prescriptive grammar rules in English schools. These theories have been challenged by some researchers, with attention given to additional possible social, ethnic, economic, and cultural influences on language and gender.<ref>{{Harvnb|Curzan|2003|pp=39, 151, 156}}.</ref> The impact on mainstream language has been limited,<ref name = "Cameron 1992 29">{{Harvnb|Cameron|1992|p=29}}.</ref> but these theories have led to lasting changes in practice.

Features of gender-neutral language in English may include:
*Avoidance of [[gender-specific job title]]s, or caution in their use;<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.elc.edu/english-grammar-lessons-gender-usage/|title=English Grammar Lessons - Gender Usage - ELC|date=2017-06-07|work=ELC - English Language Center|access-date=2017-10-24|language=en-US}}</ref>
*Avoidance of the use of ''man'' and ''mankind'' to refer to humans in general;<ref name="Warren2020">{{Cite web |last1=Warren |first1=Virginia L. |title=Guidelines for Non-Sexist Use of Language |url=https://www.apaonline.org/page/nonsexist |publisher=[[American Philosophical Association]] |access-date=2 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200302025159/https://www.apaonline.org/page/nonsexist |archive-date=2 March 2020 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
*Avoidance of the use of ''he'', ''him'' and ''his'' when referring to a person of unspecified sex (see under {{slink||Personal pronouns}} above).<ref name="Warren2020" />

Certain naming practices (such as the use of ''Mrs'' and ''Miss'' to distinguish married and unmarried women, respectively) may also be discouraged on similar grounds. For more details and examples, see [[Gender neutrality in English]].

==See also==
{{Wiktionary|gender}}
* [[English grammar]]
* [[Gender-neutral language]]
* [[History of English]]

==References==

===Notes===
{{Reflist|30em}}

===Bibliography===
{{Refbegin}}
*{{Cite book|title= Feminism and Linguistic Theory|last= Cameron|first= Deborah|publisher= [[Palgrave Macmillan]]|year= 1992|isbn= 978-0-312-08376-2|edition= 2nd|location= New York,&nbsp;NY}}
*{{Cite book|title= Gender Shifts in the History of English|last= Curzan|first= Anne|publisher= [[Cambridge University Press]]|year= 2003|isbn= 978-0-521-82007-3|location= Cambridge}}
{{Refend}}

<!--==External links==-->

[[Category:Grammatical gender|English]]
[[Category:English grammar]]