[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Ma'am-I-Am

This is fascinating! Surely, there are words that *imply* sex/gender - outside of pronouns - such as "Mother"? Are there equivalents to Mr/Mrs? Is it expected that a speaker establish the sex or gender of a third, nonpresent person before using a pronoun, i.e. "my brother" ? Is the use of neutral, non-gendered pronouns a recent change or has it always been a feature of the language?

1. Some, yes, of course, like Father, Mother, Brother, Sister, Son, Daughter and so on.
   
2. Yes - Härra and Proua, respectively. Preili for Miss. Those are old German loans.
   
3. It's usually expected when the listeners don't know the person spoken about. Mostly the gender can also be deduced from the person's first name, if it's known.
   
4. It has always been a feature. The Finnish language, which is closely related, has the same feature.