Christine Mallinson, associate professor of language, literacy, and culture, recently joined NPR’s “All Things Considered” for a discussion of the use of “yo” as a gender-neutral pronoun.
Mallinson said that kids in Baltimore have solved a very old problem in linguistics: English doesn’t have a gender-neutral pronoun. That makes it difficult to refer to people if you don’t know the person’s gender. Youth in Baltimore often use “yo” instead of “he” or “she” when they don’t know a person’s gender. But they also use “yo” as a substitute even when they do know the gender.
Mallinson, and other linguists, are interested to see if the pronoun sticks around. A number of other proposed gender-neutral pronouns – including ‘zee’ and ‘zeer’ – have failed to catch on.
“It’ll be interesting to see whether they keep that usage as they become adults. Do they keep that in the workplace? If that’s the case, it might persist,” said Mallinson. “But sometimes slang or linguistic innovations in middle or high school get dropped out as people become adult users of English.”
The segment, entitled “’Yo’ Said What?” aired on April 24.
