Third person neutral pronoun!

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:23 PM -0500 1/23/08, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>If the Welsh "hur" turns out to have been also used to refer to
>females, we have another candidate.  :-)
>
>Joel

Puts a whole new (and very diffuse) light on the identity of "Ben
Hur", which must be the Hebrao-Welsh for 'son or daughter of him or
her'

LH

>
>At 1/23/2008 11:07 AM, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>>On Dennis Barron's comprehensive list of suggested epicene pronouns,
>>"e" or "E" is listed as being proposed in 1890, 1977, 1978, 1982,
>>1988, and 1989:
>>
>>http://www.english.uiuc.edu/-people-/faculty/debaron/essays/epicene.htm
>>
>>Perhaps it just needs to be reintroduced a few more times before it
>>catches on!
>>
>>--Ben
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org