{"id":4054,"date":"2008-01-05T12:13:19","date_gmt":"2008-01-05T19:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2008\/01\/05\/is-yo-emerging-as-a-gender-neutral-pronoun\/"},"modified":"2008-01-05T12:13:19","modified_gmt":"2008-01-05T19:33:07","slug":"is-yo-emerging-as-a-gender-neutral-pronoun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=4054","title":{"rendered":"Is "Yo" Emerging As A Gender-Neutral Pronoun?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some interesting language news<\/a> (hat-tip to blueheron<\/a>):<\/p>\n

Street term ‘Yo’ is being used by kids as a gender-neutral replacement for ‘he’ and ‘she’, according to researchers.<\/p>\n

Language experts in the US say since at least 2004 students have been saying “yo” as a substitute for gender specific pronouns and the trend is growing.<\/p>\n

After previous attempts to introduce a gender-neutral pronoun failed, researchers suggested “yo” could become commonly used.<\/p>\n

Experts said the growth of the word’s usage in this way was remarkable as it was a “grass-roots phenomenon”.<\/p>\n

The study, published in this week’s New Scientist, found middle-school and high-school students in Baltimore, Maryland, used the word in sentences such as, “Yo put his foot up” and “Yo looks like a freak”.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There have been several attempts to create gender-neutral pronouns from trans activists and from feminists, but none of them has had much success; deliberate attempts to change English usage almost never work (although the example of “Ms.” is pretty inspiring). There might be more hope for “Yo,” because it’s creation seems more grassroots. ((“Grassroots” isn’t really the word I want to use, but I’m not able to think of what word it is I’m looking for.))<\/p>\n

In the article, “feminist scholar” Brenda Wrigley criticizes “yo” for sounding “crass and disrespectful.” Boo on feminist scholar Brenda Wrigley! As BlueHeron notes,<\/p>\n

“crass and disrespectful”, which can clearly be translated as both “I’m not used to people speaking like that” and “kids these days have no respect for language”, both of which are ultimately foolish and useless concerns and do nothing to stop the adoption of new words.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I really hope this use of “yo” spreads and flourishes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some interesting language news (hat-tip to blueheron): Street term ‘Yo’ is being used by kids as a gender-neutral replacement for ‘he’ and ‘she’, according to researchers. Language experts in the US say since at least 2004 students have been saying … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mind-blowing-miscellania-and-other-neat-stuff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4054\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}