By John Mack Freeman
The official dictionary of Sweden has been updated to include a gender-neutral pronoun for the first time. Though the pronoun “hen” has been in use for decades, this is the first time it has been included in the language’s official dictionary. Via Pink News:
The Swedish trans community began using it, and pushing for its wider use, in the early 2000s. It now can be found in use in educational and legal documents.
The Swedish Academy’s dictionary, due to published in April, is updated every 10 years, with words added based on how popular and useful they. This edition has 13,000 new words.
Editor Sture Berg said: “For those who use the pronoun, it’s obviously a strength that it is now in the dictionary.”
