Comments by magdahightower

  • EP is the perfect 3rd person singular gender-neutral pronoun that English needs, something less plural-looking than "they".

    EP also has a beautiful etymology to support this new usage:

    ETYMOLOGY

    epicene (adj.)

    "belonging to or including both sexes," mid-15c., epycen, originally a grammatical term for nouns that may denote either gender, from Latin epicoenus "common," from Greek epikoinos "common to many, promiscuous," from epi "on" (see epi-) + koinos "common" (see coeno-). English has no need of it in its grammatical sense. Extended sense of "characteristic of both sexes" first recorded in English c. 1600; that of "effeminate" is from 1630s.

    From EPICENE (adjective)

    ep•i•cene | \ ˈe-pə-ˌsēn \

    Definition of epicene

    1 of a noun : having but one form to indicate either sex

    2a : having characteristics typical of the other sex

    b : EFFEMINATE

    3 : lacking characteristics of either sex

    REFERENCES

    https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/epicene

    https://www.etymonline.com/word/epicene

    USAGE

    compare to current forms:

    he/she/it – these cover the 3rd person singular for binary people (he/she) and for inanimates/things/animals (it)

    proposed new forms:

    he, she, ep, it

    The possessive form of EP would be formed by the same rules as the current ones (no apostrophe):

    Current: his, hers, its

    New: his, hers, eps, its

    In contractions, also using the same rules:

    he’ll (he will) = ep’ll (ep will)

    she’d (she would) = ep’d (ep would)

    it’s (it is) = ep’s (ep is)

    Thanks!

    June 21, 2020

  • Thank you for this info that is new to me! I look forward to playing soon!

    June 21, 2020