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You're amazing and so are your questions.
I'm looking for a third option for sir/ma'am, and a substitute for Chief that's a bit more formal.
The culture I'm in now is not as formal, this isn't so much finding something to work within the culture of this area as it is to marry my culture to the one I find myself in. I have very little to connect me to my people here and so the traditions I choose to keep are more important as a result. I like saying sir/ma'am. It's the verbal equivalent of holding the door open for someone. But for some people being addressed that way is invalidating, and I want to meet people where they are, not force them to come to me.
I like Magister as a third option for Mr/Mrs., and Professor as a more formal Chief. But sir/ma'am has me stumped
I truly admire your intent in this quest of yours. Admirable.
♥️
I would recommend asking the person what they prefer, for people you know ahead of time are non-binary. For people you don't know ahead of time, choose whichever you think is most likely, apologize if you get it wrong, and ask them afterwards what they prefer.
Unless it is adopted widely by society, any third option will likely be met with confusion, and will still likely offend some people.
For a suggestion of a third option, however, might I offer "boss"? Slightly more formal than chief (in my experience), gender neutral, and allows you to make it as playful or respectful as the situation needs.
Just be aware that there are some slavery/prison connotations to boss in the US and some might be offended.
Was not aware of that! I'm assuming it is a South/West thing? Never encountered that in the North East
Mostly southern but definitely prisons as well. Predominant in chain gang type situations. An example more people might be familiar with would be Morgan Freeman's line "bathroom break, boss?" in Shawshank Redemption when he's been paroled and working at the grocery store. Yes, it's from a movie but it's also a reverence more likely to resonate. Shawshank takes place in the Northeast, hence prison...uh, "culture".
Yeah, I've heard "boss" used in prison movies and such, but I've also heard it in places of employment (even when the person isn't the supervisor or boss), between customer and service worker (both directions), with strangers ("Watch your step there, boss, there's a sudden drop"). Never saw anyone offended by it in my own experience, so it's news to me (and good to know) that there could be groups out there that are offended by it.
I only mentiomed it as a precautionary thing. I use boss all the time and can hardly recall receiving negative reactions, but it might be received poorly in other places. One of many downsides to living in a redneck state is that some intolerable shit is normalized.
Well if you want to keep a similar motif, Cap'n is vaguely formal, vaguely military esque, and it's gender neutral. Could be seafaring or land based.
You probably won't find anything with the same level of formality as sir/ma'am, so you're going to have to compromise a little bit on that front, but I think people will like the attempt regardless!
Reminds me of Dana calling Dr Robby «Cap» on The Pitt.
Not OP but I think that's a darn good suggestion.
As a foreigner whose native tongue has gendered nouns and adjectives: we default to sir to sir-presenting people, ma'am to ma'am presenting, and "sir? ma'am? " when unsure and clarification is needed.
I do not understand why you'd want to preemptively force gender someone by choosing a neutral/or newspeak/ form of address - to me it seems much much much worse than defaulting to asking for preference ("sir? ma'am?" option is the best - it declares you've noticed the interlocutor is a nb and passes the ball to them).
If you're looking for 1 word that would always work, I recommend embracing your inner old British Lady and calling everyone pet (petal), dear or love. :-)