Here are the two basic proximate and obviative pronouns, also known as the singular genderless pronouns:

Proximate: zei, en, huir, huirs, enself – (pronunciations: “zay, en, hear, hears, enself”) 

Obviative: nei, nem, neir, neirs, nemself – (pronunciations: “nay, nem, nare, nares, nemself")

You may generally use the “zei” pronoun for the first subject (the proximate subject). This subject tends to be more “in focus” or the one doing the action upon a second subject. On the other hand, you may use the “nei” pronoun for the second subject (the obviative subject) who is less in focus or is being acted upon. This is not always the case in more complex sentences or passages, as long as the subjects are still apparent.

As an example:

“Zei found huir notebook at neir house.”

So what’s going on? Basically:

“Zei(PROX)found huir(PROX) notebook at neir(OBV) house”

The first subject found first subject’s notebook at second subject’s house.

It gets a little more complex when you add gendered versions of these two basic pronouns to the equation.

For the proximate pronouns:

Feminine: she, her, her, hers, herself

Masculine: he, him, his, his, himself

And for the obviative pronouns:

Feminine: sie, sier, sier, siers, sierself – (pronunciations: “sea, sear, sear, sears, searself")

Masculine: ve, vir, vir, virs, virself – (pronunciations: “vee, ver, ver, vers, verself")

These gendered versions of the proximate and obviative pronouns aren’t used much, if at all, in regular conversation, unless someone is telling an extensive story or wishes to emphasize a subject’s gender. They serve well for written narratives. You may use them when first introducing a subject within a context. Once they’ve been introduced using the gendered pronoun, the pronoun tends to become non-gendered.

Here’s a fairly simple progression in which this occurs:

“When Madelyn decided to finally head out on the road trip, she packed huir belongings and called all huir friends to inform them that zei was leaving.”

^ You can see above that Madelyn is referred to as “she” once but “zei” the rest of the time.

Now let’s try a more complex progression with two subjects:

“Orion didn’t remember where he placed huir bag, so zei asked Madelyn if sie knew. However, nei didn’t know either.”

^ In this sentence, Madelyn is the obviative subject. Madelyn is referred to as “sie” first and then “nei” the rest of the time, just like in the first example sentence.

The history of these pronouns is fascinating. According to historical documents, the “zei” and “nei” pronouns appeared to be used for higher classes. In other words, reserved for the most powerful senergians. Historical anthropologists also argue that senergie was one of the early “gender equalizers” in several different ways. For instance, wars no longer depended on physical strength; rather, senergetic strength was far more valuable. Early documents of royalty in homosexual relationships even suggest that senergie could bend the laws of reproduction, denoting the acceptance of these types of relationships, at least in the most powerful senergian circles.

Funnily enough, the “sie” and “ve” pronouns used to be genderless as well but were reserved as pronouns that dehumanized exergians or weak senergians. There wasn’t even an “it” pronoun until exergians gained the technological advantage and split off from senergian society.

Over time, the Ajhingen language evolved to use the former “dehumanizing” pronouns as gendered ones while using “zei” and “nei” as genderless ones for all people. People attribute this change to the Meteoric Age that lasted hundreds of years, while technology and education increased rapidly, and many scholars adopted new writing systems to redefine exergians’ place in society. Eventually, as schools became commonplace, so did the new pronoun system.