Baby's an It (call of the obstetrician?)

[Joel S. Berson]

Does this arise from it's being difficult with babies of tender age
to determine their sex by external observation?

Joel

At 9/9/2008 11:54 AM, Lynne Murphy wrote:
>--On Monday, September 8, 2008 11:00 am -0400 Wilson Gray
><hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>
>>Are there many - or any - people still around who learned as I did
>>that a baby is an "it" and not a "he" or a "she"?
>
>'Dunce' blogged about this a few months ago, noting it as more British than
>American in his experience--in mine too.
>
><http://newpics.org/david/AreBritishChildrenMoreNeuterThanUSChildren.aspx>
>
>A 60-something English friend of ours persists in calling our 8-month-old
>daughter 'it', but then he corrects himself because he's been taken to task
>for it many times.
>
>Lynne
>
>
>Dr M Lynne Murphy
>Senior Lecturer in Linguistics and English Language
>Arts B135
>University of Sussex
>Brighton BN1 9QN
>
>phone: +44-(0)1273-678844
>http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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