The POWER of ‘WE’

Are you wondering why we chose ‘WE’ to title the world’s most inclusive style of English?

It’s simple, really. Our world is becoming more inclusive every day. The internet can gather us together in ways never before imaginable; we can know others around the world almost instantly. In fact, I believe we now have a ‘WE’ World. That’s why it’s so critical to give English an upgrade! Since English is now our world’s most commonly spoken language, don’t you think it’s time for it to reflect that inclusive world–a world that includes all, regardless of sex, gender, culture, or any other aspect. Do you agree?

‘WE’ draws us together and our world can surely use more of that, can’t it? WFW believes

that each person is individually unique and yet, coming together is powerful and necessary.

WEquality is what we’re after, isn’t it? Think of the years those of us who aren’t men have

spent fighting for the right to be treated as equals. It’s been a long, hard road, and we’re still not there. Our Declaration of Independence starts with those famous words, ‘WE the people’, which appears to include everyone. However, right after that it declares that all ‘men’ are created equal.

What ‘men’ means in that context has been debated ever since.

But we are lightyears beyond those words; and while we can suppose any variety of interpretations, we know that equality should be applied to all people. The word ‘MEN’ should be replaced with ‘men and wimin’ rather than using it as a (possibly intended) catch-all word for everyone. It’s time for our language to catch up with our culture and it’s very easy to do. ‘WE’ is a great word to bring a group together; hence, WEnglish for WEquality.

One aspect that ‘we the people’ haven’t paid enough attention to is how our language affects us. If you’re following our blogs, you’ve seen how English thrives on ‘man’ words. It occurs to us that it’s past time to acknowledge that ‘we the people’ include both sexes, myriads of genders, nationalities, cultures, and beliefs. And most importantly, that our words should clearly reflect that truth.

*NOTE: WEnglish focuses on two sexes, commonly known as men and women (wimin in WEnglish). Its singular purpose is to assure that both sexes are equally represented in our language. English remains a highly masculine language in spite of all our efforts to recognize non-men as equals. WEnglish equalizes words in order to create what it calls ‘WEquality’.

If we want equality, it’s time to think WE!

Yours for WEnglish for WEquality!

Vivian Probst

Next blog: What is equality? How will we know if and when we’ve arrived? You might be amazed by the markers that a lot of us miss!

Two ‘Man Words’ that Keep Us Tied to Men

In our last blog, we fixed tha most common ‘man’ word in English by a simple spelling change:

Spelling change #1 ‘the’ becomes ‘tha’.

We say ‘tha’ far more often than we say ‘thē’, so it makes sense. We also noted that dictionaries hold to ‘t-h-ē’ and will continue to do so unless we require a spelling change. For decades, dictionaries have used ‘ә’ (called a ‘schwa’) to symbolize the ‘a’ sound in ‘tha’ and other words. It’s always in parenthesis (after the formal spelling of ‘thē’), as if it’s not as important. Like an exception rather than our primary way of pronouncing ‘tha’.

Did You Know? Dictionaries add/change words constantly. Asking for a word to be spelled the way it sounds is not revolutionary. In WEnglish, we are working to brings conscious awareness to how poorly women are treated in English words. We hope you’re willing to join us in getting dictionaries to change how they spell ‘the’.

It’s the biggest, single-word fix in English!

Submit THA to the Oxford Dictionary Here

Now, we add two more word change requests to make English more of a ‘WE’/inclusive language. Ready?

HE; HER

Both ‘SHE’ and ‘HER’ are very common in English; yet both are ‘man’ words by our WEnglish definition. S-HE; HE-R. One letter added to each ‘he’ word converts it to a word referring to those of us who aren’t men. Note: Other languages handle these words differently but run into trouble by making nouns follow masculine or feminine articles. OHHH. Be still my heart! We’re not going to do that. Don’t you wonder how those languages decided which nouns were boys and which were girls? UGH.

A WEnglish Solution

Spelling Change #2: S-H-E becomes SHI:

WEnglish uses ‘shi’ to disconnect from ‘he’. It’s not our favorite spelling change, but it signifies a break from tradition, and that’s important.

You’ll notice that there are very few spelling changes in WEnglish. We’re hitting key words right away to show you how easily we can convert English to WEnglish.

(Vivian’s latest four-book novel series is written in both English and WEnglish if you want to see what’s different. Trust us, it’s not scary at all.)

WEnglish Books

Spelling Change #3: HER becomes HIR:

WEnglish uses ‘hir’ to disconnect from ‘he’.

HER to ‘HIR’ is an easier transition because we already use ‘hir’ in existing words like ‘shirt’.

A Word about ‘ER’: ‘ER’ as used in expressions like ‘git ‘er done’ are not used in WEnglish because ‘er’ is a slangy way to say ‘her’. Do you agree? WEnglish does not use slang because most slang is derogatory to those of us who aren’t men–far more often than slang terms to degrade men. (Further information is available in two books: ‘Unspinning the Spin’ (referred to earlier in these blogs) and ‘WordSlut’ by Amanda Montell, who says on page 17, “Language is the next frontier of modern gender equality.”) I’d say ‘a-men’, but if you’ve read this far, you can see why a WEnglish speaker doesn’t use that word. Let’s just say YES!.

How are you feeling? So far, WEnglish is suggesting three word spelling changes. A couple more is all it takes to become a WEnglish pro!

In our next blog, we’ll finish up with those two additional words before we hit tha BIG TIME. Our greatest challenge? To stop using words that discredit women. Stay tuned for BLOG #7 as we wind up our WEnglish Word Collider!

Vivian Probst

Author, Linguist, Creator of WEnglish for WEquality™