<p>The characters 她 and 它 exist in old Chinese, but they were not third person pronouns and were not pronounced &quot;ta&quot;. 她 used to be the same as 姐，meaning mother, while 它 was the original form of 蛇（snake）.</p>
<p>Using 她 and 它 as pronouns is indeed a rather recent development, mainly by the cohort of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Fourth_Movement#:%7E:text=On%20May%204%2C%201919%2C%20the,to%20sign%20the%20Versailles%20Treaty." rel="nofollow noreferrer">May Fourth Movement</a> as a way to mordernise Chinese and make translation of English works easier. The usage of 她 as female third person pronoun was suggested in 1917-1918 by poet <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Bannong" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Liu Bannong(刘半农)</a>. Around the same time, 伊 (yi, female pronoun in the Wu dialect) was also commonly used as female third person prnoun, but gradually fell out of favour. I'm not exactly sure when and how did the 它 begin as a pronoun, some sources suggest it's the same as 她。</p>
<p>他 assumed its current form during <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libian" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Libian (隶变)</a> 2nd Century BC, its original form was 佗(burden). It probably was populoarised as a pronoun during Ming dynasty (14th century).</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-08-06T03:13:08.173Z
"他"本作“佗”。(1)本义:负担. (2) 古代泛指男女及一切事物，现代则用于称代自己和对方以外的男性第三者 [he]. https://www.zdic.net/hans/%E4%BB%96
r13
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-08-06T22:18:36.670Z
Could you please tell me how 她 and 它 were spoken in old Chinese?
Pedroski
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-08-06T22:48:33.767Z
@Pedroski As far as I can tell, they were both pronounced the same way as their alternate form, so 她=姐，它=蛇. According to Kangxi Dictionary, 她 was also pronounced as 左 or 驰.  它 was also pronounced tuó or tuō, since it also means 骆驼(camel). Btw, 它山堰 is an ancient dam in Zhejiang, it's still pronounced Tuōshān yàn.
EEQ
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-08-06T23:02:16.597Z
Thanks! Etymology: a conundrum in a riddle in mystery in a maze!
Pedroski
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-08-06T01:30:58.883Z
2022-08-06T01:55:05.193Z
2022-08-06T01:55:05.193Z
EEQ
<p>In many languages, nouns have gender, that is the noun is considered to be feminine, masculine or neuter (Latin for neither, not masculine, also not feminine.) The gender of the noun affects how other words relating to it are altered.</p>
<p>As far as I can tell, Chinese nouns do not have gender.</p>
<p>But Chinese has 她，他，它。</p>
<p>Are these three present in old Chinese, or are they a more recent addition to the language?</p>

<etymology>
How old are 她，他，它？
# How old are 她，他，它？

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-08-05)

In many languages, nouns have gender, that is the noun is considered to be feminine, masculine or neuter (Latin for neither, not masculine, also not feminine.) The gender of the noun affects how other words relating to it are altered.

As far as I can tell, Chinese nouns do not have gender.

But Chinese has 她，他，它。

Are these three present in old Chinese, or are they a more recent addition to the language?

**Tags:** etymology


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2022-08-06. Score: 4 | Accepted answer

The characters 她 and 它 exist in old Chinese, but they were not third person pronouns and were not pronounced "ta". 她 used to be the same as 姐，meaning mother, while 它 was the original form of 蛇（snake）.

Using 她 and 它 as pronouns is indeed a rather recent development, mainly by the cohort of [May Fourth Movement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Fourth_Movement#:%7E:text=On%20May%204%2C%201919%2C%20the,to%20sign%20the%20Versailles%20Treaty.) as a way to mordernise Chinese and make translation of English works easier. The usage of 她 as female third person pronoun was suggested in 1917-1918 by poet [Liu Bannong(刘半农)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Bannong). Around the same time, 伊 (yi, female pronoun in the Wu dialect) was also commonly used as female third person prnoun, but gradually fell out of favour. I'm not exactly sure when and how did the 它 begin as a pronoun, some sources suggest it's the same as 她。

他 assumed its current form during [Libian (隶变)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libian) 2nd Century BC, its original form was 佗(burden). It probably was populoarised as a pronoun during Ming dynasty (14th century).

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: "他"本作“佗”。(1)本义:负担. (2) 古代泛指男女及一切事物，现代则用于称代自己和对方以外的男性第三者 [he]. https://www.zdic.net/hans/%E4%BB%96  
> **username_0**: Could you please tell me how 她 and 它 were spoken in old Chinese?  
> **username_1**: @username_0 As far as I can tell, they were both pronounced the same way as their alternate form, so 她=姐，它=蛇. According to Kangxi Dictionary, 她 was also pronounced as 左 or 驰.  它 was also pronounced tuó or tuō, since it also means 骆驼(camel). Btw, 它山堰 is an ancient dam in Zhejiang, it's still pronounced Tuōshān yàn.  
> **username_0**: Thanks! Etymology: a conundrum in a riddle in mystery in a maze!  

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