There’s definitely some additional nuance (like a pronouns in bio/username situation) but this should cover the broad needs of anyone who is approaching this with good faith.
There’s definitely some additional nuance (like a pronouns in bio/username situation) but this should cover the broad needs of anyone who is approaching this with good faith.
There’s a similar — though very localised — thing in English with “themself.”
The singular form is used, but it’s far less common than the plural form “themselves.” I often hear “themselves” used to refer to one non-binary person and it always sounds weird.
I guess we have to work with what we have. Is there an alternative in Arabic, like neopronouns?
Your comment made me try to think of one, and all I got was a headache.
In arabic everything is gendered. Even the most simple pronoun “I” changes the form of the sentence based on your gender (ie masculine: “ana ju’an” fem: “ana ju’ana”
Even the numbers and verbs are gendered. To try to add a new gender would be rethinking the entire language.
But in Arabic masculine pronouns are considered normal. Even with feminine objects like the sun, you can use a masculine pronoun “hua kabir” He (it) is big. So most enbies I know of just use masculine pronouns. There may be an alternative I don’t know of. It’s an interesting yet complex topic.
Isn’t there a dual case (as in, specifically for two of something) in Arabic? Or is that primarily a formal thing?
There is. It’s absolutely necessary, no exceptions at all. It’s one of the only languages that really use it. It just adds to the complexity lol