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Article published In:
Linguistics in the Netherlands 2023
Edited by Sterre Leufkens and Marco Bril
[Linguistics in the Netherlands 40] 2023
► pp. 194–209

Is ‘he’ still here?

Exploring the contemporary use of masculine subject pronouns for women in Dutch dialects

| Tilburg University
| Tilburg University
| Tilburg University | Meertens Institute

Various non-standard language varieties in the Netherlands traditionally allow for the use of masculine personal subject pronouns (i.e. regionally distinct variants of hij ‘he’) in reference to women. While this practice is well-documented within Dutch dialectology, especially during the twentieth century, it is unclear to what extent this feature still exists nowadays. Moreover, the use of masculine subject forms for female reference has not previously been described for Limburgian dialects. This paper offers a start to filling these gaps, by providing insight into the contemporary use of ‘he’ for women in Dutch dialects, with a specific focus on occurrences in Dutch Limburg. We report on a Twitter query and three interviews, showing (i) that the use of ‘he’ for women still exists in various Dutch dialects, and (ii) how native speakers of a Limburgian dialect use and perceive this feature of their dialect.

Keywords: Dutch dialects, female reference, interview, masculine subject pronoun, Twitter
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.A Twitter query
  • 3.Interviews
    • 3.1A conspicuous local feature
    • 3.2 Hae in everyday conversations
    • 3.3Referents
    • 3.4 Hae vs. het
    • 3.5A gender-neutral term?
  • 4.Discussion
  • Data availability
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 3 November 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/avt.00087.pie
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