Gender neutrality and language

[Ann Evans]

It's interesting that this post has degenerated into a religious discussion
when something extremely pertinent is at hand.  How are we to express the
gender-neutral pronoun?  I tell my classes that it will be up to them to
figure this one out, but I would like to be a of a little more help to them
than that.  Is it true that "they" was once legitimately the gender-neutral
third-person singular pronoun?  How else, other than rewriting sentences,
can this issue be resolved.  One posting recently mentioned "yo" as a
gender-neutral pronoun, but I don't see that catching on.  Any other
inventions lately?

Ann

On Mon, Mar 3, 2008 at 9:02 PM, Christina Paulston <paulston+ at pitt.edu>
wrote:

> Yes, H L MecKen - thank you for the correction.  I have myself
> misattributed the quotation to an Arkansas principal, I think it was,
> so I feel honour bound to assign it properly. CBP
> On Mar 3, 2008, at 8:51 PM, Ronald Kephart wrote:
>
> > H. L. Mencken? Ron
> >
> >
> > On 3/3/08 8:48 PM, "Christina Paulston" <paulston+ at pitt.edu> wrote:
> >
> >> Just for the record  "if it was good enough for Jesus etc" is a quote
> >> from Menchen.  (Did I misspell his name - my spelling checker thinks
> >> so ?)
> >
>
>
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