Elle (Spanish pronoun)

Elle (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈeʎe], plural: elles [ˈeʎes]) is a proposed third-person gender-neutral pronoun[1][2] in Spanish intended as an alternative to the gender-specific él ("he") and ella ("she"). It can be used when the gender of a person is not known or when it is not desirable to specify them as either a "he" or "she". It is not endorsed by any Spanish language academy.

"Elle (pronoun)" redirects here. For the French pronoun, see French personal pronouns § Subject pronouns.

On 27 October 2020 the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) incorporated the pronoun into its Word Observatory, a new section of their website relaunched on 23 October 2020, with the following definition:[3]

The pronoun elle is a resource created and promoted in certain areas to refer to those who may not feel identified with either of the two traditional genders. Its use is not widespread or established.
The use of elle as the name of the diagraph ll is noted in the DLE.[3]

On 30 October 2020, four days after its inclusion, the RAE decided to remove the word from its portal due to the confusion generated by its presence, and declared: "When the functioning and mission of this section is widely disseminated, it will be reassessed".[2]

History

Some non-binary Spanish speakers feel that they do not have a word to refer to themselves and for others to refer to them.[4] The neutral pronoun arose from the need to make those people, who feel neither male nor female and therefore are not comfortable with the traditional pronouns, visible, and also to be used when a person's gender is not known. This pronoun is also accompanied by a whole neutral grammatical gender.

Initially the symbol @ was used on social networks, blogs and other websites to express the neutral gender, but the result was not very satisfactory because it could not be pronounced. Later the symbol x also started to be used, but again pronunciation was a problem. For that reason, and although both options are still used, consensus was reached to use e as the ending for the neutral grammatical gender and elle as the neutral pronoun. The first person to propose it was the British blogger Sophia Gubb[5] and, because of its ease, this is now the most widespread option. For this reason, several campaigns have been launched in order to get the pronoun included in the RAE.[6]

Uses

The pronoun elle and its plural elles (together with the whole neutral gender) have more than one use, they are:

  • To refer to a person who does not identify with only the male or female gender. For example: «elle es mi amigue, es no binarie» ("they are my friend, they are non-binary")
  • To refer to a group of people that contain more than one gender. For example: «elles son mis hermanes, dos son varones y una es mujer» ("they are my siblings, two are men and one is a woman")
  • To refer to a generic individual. For example: «si alguien viaja en autobús, elle debe pagar el pasaje» ("if someone travels by bus, they must pay the fare")
  • To refer to someone you do not know without assuming their gender. For example: «¿Tienes novie? ¿Elle es mayor que tú?» ("Do you have a romantic partner? Are they older than you?")[7]

See also

Notes
  1. Venkatraman, Sakshi (14 October 2020). "A gender neutral Spanish pronoun? For some, 'elle' is the word". NBCNews.com. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
  2. "La Real Academia Española retiró la palabra "elle" de su Observatorio para evitar "confusiones"". Clarín (in Spanish). Buenos Aires. 1 November 2020. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
  3. "El, ella y "elle": el pronombre que la Real Academia estudia incorporar al idioma". Clarín (in Spanish). Buenos Aires. 28 October 2020. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
  4. Glicksman, Eve (April 2020). "Transgender terminology: It's complicated". American Psychological Association. 44 (4): 39. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
  5. "Construyendo Un Género Neutro En Español - Para Una Lengua Feminista, Igualitaria E Inclusiva" (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  6. "No, #ElleEnLaRAE no va por nosotros". ELLE (in Spanish). 27 August 2015. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
  7. "El caso del pronombre "Elle"". cactuscom - el blog (in Spanish). 31 August 2015. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
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