What is the "synthetic ending"?

Question

In a recent question someone suggested something that I had never heard of before (Question here). The so-called

synthetic ending

The situation was as follows:

In German you have Sprecher/-in or SprecherIn to signal that there are both male and female speakers. This is a common pattern. The answer now suggested another form:

Sprecherix

with the synthetic ending -ix.

I have never seen this form before and could not find much information on it online. Does this form actually exist? Is it a new thing or has it been in the German language for a long time? Also is it common in any field to use this? Also how would it be applied to other words. Let's make some examples:

Sänger/-in -> Sängerix

Bauarbeiter/-in -> Bauarbeiterix

Are these correct applications of this concept?

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Answer 1

The so-called "X-Form" is a way of expressing a gender neutral form that has no resemblance to either the male or female form. It aims to include people of all genders, may they be male, female, non-binary, trans, gender-fluid or however you would like to identify yourself. Unfortunately I am not really familiar with the rules for building this form, but I would assume that the example of Sprecherix would rather be Sprechx (as this is replacing any gendered ending with the -x).

As for frequency of usage, the German wikipedia page for gender neutral language lists the "X-Form" in the section about neutralizing forms. I have to agree that it is not very commonly used in general. However groups that focus not only on the inclusion of women in language but also people that identify themselves in different ways, use either this form or one of similar inclusion level. I have also read news paper articles in the past discussing this form of gender neutral language (along with other forms).

You are also right to assume that it is relatively new development, as is the whole of gender neutral language. From Rha's answer and my own research I take that is was proposed in 2014 (or at least made aware to the public with multiple news paper articles).

Answer 2

To me this is quite new. I doubt that it will gain broader acceptance. I found an article from 2014 about a similar proposal but without the -i- (Example: Professx for both female and male Professor): Professorin schlägt geschlechtsneutrale x-Endungen vor

The idea is obviously that the x serves as a sort of a wildcard, so that the word comprises both female and male, and also persons that identify themselves as neither male nor female.

Initially I thought that it was taken from Latin where male consonsantic nouns ending in -tor have a female counterpart ending in -trix (Example: doctor, doctrix). But -trix is exclusively female.

Answer 3

Well, I'm a born German and never heard that too. So I went to ask some friends and, of course, the Internet. But I can't find anything. I'm pretty sure that this form doesn't exist.