[Ads-l] Apparently brainless reporting on alternative 3rd person pronouns

[Barretts Mail]

I exchanged three e-mails with the writer of the article, Kristen Johanson.

She said that she spoke with “MANY professionals” about the issue and that she did the article for the first International Pronoun Day.

I asked: So are they using “thou” to mean “you” or something else? That’s the issue I (we) don’t understand.

She responded: ​Possibly as something else.  Basically, they are playing with different words to see what fits, since the idea is very new to mainstream English (or American, more specifically) language.

Without evidence, it seems most likely to me that “thou” is just experiencing a revival as a second-person pronoun, though Johanson sees it differently. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thou#More_recent_uses <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thou#More_recent_uses> for recent and current usage.)

Benjamin Barrett
Formerly of Seattle, WA

> On 17 Oct 2018, at 07:31, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
> 
> It’s just basic ecology.  We have a demand for a gender-unspecified third person singular pronoun, and we have this leftover supply of unused second person singular pronouns, so why not recycle and repurpose that inventory?  Not that I can imagine a given English speaker actually doing so, but thou might surprise me.  
> 
>> On Oct 17, 2018, at 2:46 AM, Mark Mandel <mark.a.mandel at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>> 
>> WTF???
>> 
>> 
>> Am I missing something here, or is the business about archaic 2nd person
>> singular pronouns totally irrelevant?
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> https://kywnewsradio.radio.com/articles/news/how-gender-identity-and-some-old-english-come-together-international-pronoun-day
>> 
>> 
>> October 25, 2018
>> *How gender identity and some 'old English' come together on International
>> Pronoun Day*
>> Kristen Johanson
>> October 16, 2018 - 10:05 pm
>> 
>> PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) -- Wednesday is the inaugural International
>> Pronoun Day, designed to make people more concious of everyday speech, and
>> to respect others' gender identity.
>> 
>> *Words like thou, thy and thee are making a comeback, for those who do not
>> identify as male or female.*
>> 
>> "We do revert back to that old English because it is something where we
>> evolved from," said Nyk Robertson is Associate Director of Gender and
>> Sexuality initiatives at Swarthmore College.
>> 
>> Mark Mandel
>> 
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org


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