Editing Slash (punctuation) (section)

====Connecting alternatives <span class="anchor" id="Gender neutrality"></span><span class="anchor" id="Gender-neutrality"></span>====
{{see also|Gender neutrality in languages with grammatical gender}}
The slash is commonly used in many languages as a shorter substitute for the [[Conjunction (grammar)#Coordinating conjunctions|conjunction]] "or", typically with the sense of [[exclusive or]] (e.g., Y/N permits yes or no but not both).<ref name="solidhart">{{cite book |contribution=Solidi and verticals |at=4.13 |title=New Hart's Rules: The Oxford Style Guide |edition=2nd |editor-first=Anne |editor-last=Waddingham |date=2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> Its use in this sense is somewhat informal,<ref name="cms104">{{cite book |title=[[The Chicago Manual of Style]] |edition=16th |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |date=2016 |at=6.104}}</ref> although it is used in [[philology]] to note variants (e.g., ''virgula/{{not a typo|uirgula}}'') and [[etymology|etymologies]] (e.g., [[French language|F.]] {{lang|fr|virgule}}/[[Late Latin|LL]]. {{lang|la|virgula}}/[[Classical Latin|L.]] {{lang|la|virga}}/[[Proto-Indo-European|PIE]]. ''{{PIE|*wirgā}}'').<ref name="partridge" />

Such slashes may be used to avoid taking a position in [[Ethnonym|naming disputes]]. One example is the [[Terms for Syriac Christians|Assyrian naming dispute]], which prompted the [[US census|US]] and [[Swedish census]]es to use the respective official designations "[[Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac]]" and "[[Assyrier/Syrianer]]" for the ethnic group.

In particular, since the late 20th century, the slash is used to permit more [[gender-neutral language]] in place of the traditional [[He (pronoun)|masculine]] or [[singular they|plural]] gender neutrals. In the case of [[English language|English]], this is usually restricted to [[Gender-specific and gender-neutral pronouns|degendered pronouns]] such as "he/she" or "s/he". Most other [[Indo-European languages]] include more far-reaching use of [[grammatical gender]]. In these, the separate gendered [[desinence]]s (grammatical suffices) of the words may be given divided by slashes or set off with [[parentheses]]. For example, in [[Spanish language|Spanish]], {{lang|es|hijo}} is a son and a {{lang|es|hija}} is a daughter; some proponents of gender-neutral language advocate the use of {{lang|es|hijo/a}}, {{lang|es|hijo(a)}} or {{lang|es|hija/hijo}} when writing for a general audience or addressing a listener of unknown gender.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cunha |first1=Celso |last2=Cintra |first2=Lindley |date=2001 |title=Nova Gramática do Português Contemporâneo |edition=3rd |location=Rio de Janeiro |publisher=Nova Fronteira |isbn=8520911374 |language=pt}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://numpol.com/br/pdf/2II.pdf |title=Coleção Números Polêmicos |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110714220702/http://numpol.com/br/pdf/2II.pdf |archive-date=14 July 2011 |access-date=29 July 2012 |language=pt |work=NumPol.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first=Robson |last=Fernando de Souza |url=http://conscienciaefervescente.blogspot.com/2009/08/proposta-do-portugues-com-inclusao-de.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120709055953/http://conscienciaefervescente.blogspot.com/2009/08/proposta-do-portugues-com-inclusao-de.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=9 July 2012 |title=A proposta do Português com Inclusão de Gênero |work=Consciência Efervescente |date=27 February 2004 |access-date=24 July 2012 |language=pt}}</ref> Less commonly, [[At sign#Gender neutrality in Spanish|at sign]] {{angle brackets|@}} is used instead: {{lang|es|hij@}}. Similarly, in [[German language|German]] and some Scandinavian and Baltic languages, {{lang|de|Sekretär}} refers to any secretary and {{lang|de|Sekretärin}} to an explicitly female secretary; some advocates of gender neutrality support forms such as {{lang|de|Sekretär/-in}} for general use. This does not always work smoothly, however: problems arise in the case of words like {{lang|de|Arzt}} ('doctor') where the explicitly female form {{lang|de|Ärztin}} is [[umlaut (diacritic)|umlauted]] and words like {{lang|de|Chinese}} ('Chinese person') where the explicitly female form {{lang|de|Chinesin}} loses the terminal ''-e''. 

Although not as common as [[brackets]], slashes can also be used for [[Uncertain plural|words the author do not know is plural or singular]] such as "child/ren", "is/are", "book/s", "answer/s" or "fix/es".