- Ne/nem/nir/nirs/nemself
- ey/em/eir/eirs/eirself
- ze/hir/hir/hirs/hirself;zie/hir/hir/hirs/hirself;ze/zir/zir/zirs/zirself;zie/zir/zir/zirs/zirself
These can get complicated for various reasons. How does pronounce a neologism? How does on differentiate between various strains of the "ze" pronouns, if no one declension is accepted? What about "bleeding" between words that can make the gender neutral pronouns sound gendered in fast, colloquial speech? What if the pronunciation or spelling makes the words seem too gendered? One reason that so many of these have been proposed is because each presents unique quirks.
Barring individual peculiarites, epicene pronouns in general can be difficult to integrate effectively into new language, as pronouns are used often and adding in a completely pronoun to our language can be harder than say, a verb or a noun . They, because it is already an established part of language, can serve as a good gender neutral pronoun, but with sentences like " Sam thought they were going to be late to the party", it can become confusing. Is they referring to only Sam, the hypothetical non-binary person, or is it referring to Sam and their friends? Despite the difficulty, finding correct pronouns for oneself is an important part of establishing one's identity and feeling comfortable in it. No matter who you are, language shapes reality and allows people to define themselves. If you have a friend who is choosing pronouns, bear with them even if the pronouns chosen may seem difficult or confusing. Taking a bit of time to learn someone's pronouns isn't too difficult, but it is extremely important in and treating that person with the dignity, respect and recognition they, or ne, or ey, or ze deserves.
Check out this list of various epicene pronouns and their various pros/cons: [x]
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