Author Sydney Brouillard-Coyle on the importance of talking openly about pronouns

The question "what are your pronouns?" is becoming more common, but the answer might not always be he, she or they.

Pronouns are evolving and it's why author Sydney Brouillard-Coyle of Brantford, Ont., decided to write A Pocket Guide to Pronouns.

As part of a CBC Kitchener-Waterloo summer series of speaking to local authors, Brouillard-Coyle joined The Morning Edition with host Craig Norris ahead of an event this week at the Waterloo Public Library.

Brouillard-Coyle uses ney/nem/nir pronouns and talked about what it means to have an open dialogue when it comes to pronouns.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity. The audio of the interview can be found at the bottom of this article.

Host Craig Norris: Tell us about A Pocket Guide to Pronouns and why you wanted to write it.

Sydney Brouillard-Coyle: The inspiration behind this book largely came from my lived experience as a non-binary person. I've often had questions from folks about how to use different pronouns, particularly for me as somebody who uses ney/nem pronouns, which is similar to they/them except with an N.

So that was part of the inspiration. I joked with a friend, 'Oh, I wish there was just a guide to pronouns I could suggest to people.' But also, I find that there is a deep interest from folks in wanting to learn about pronouns, wanting to learn about how to create safer spaces for queer and trans folks. So I'm honoured to be able to offer this guide and resource for folks.

Norris: For people who don't maybe understand the difference, what is, from your perspective, the difference between they, them and their and ney, nem and nir?

Brouillard-Coyle: I personally used ney/nem because this pronoun set actually was created in 1850 and the N was chosen at the beginning of ney/nem to represent the word neutral. And that really resonates with my experience. 

So the actual way that these are used is very similar. So rather than saying 'They went to the mall,' you would say 'Ney went to the mall.' So the way they're used is similar, but the end represents neutral, which is just really resonating and validating for me.

Norris: What exactly will people find in the book A Pocket Guide to Pronouns?

Brouillard-Coyle: The book is split into four different sections. 

The first section just kind of covers some of the basics about how we talk about the queer and trans community, as well as basics around pronouns.