Sweden adds gender-neutral pronoun to dictionary
Sweden adds gender-neutral pronoun to dictionary
Pronoun ‘hen’ can be used without revealing gender – either because it is unknown, because the person is transgender, or the information is superfluous
The pronoun ‘hen’ caught on in 2000, when the country’s small transgender community latched on to it, and its use has taken off in the past few years. The official dictionary of the Swedish language will introduce a gender-neutral pronoun in April, editors at the Swedish Academy have announced.
“Hen” will be added to “han” (he) and “hon” (she) as one of 13,000 new words in the latest edition of the Swedish Academy’s SAOL.