New Pronoun Observed In The Wild!
Apr. 28th, 2008 12:39 pmSince I was a kid, I have felt the lack of a third person singular gender neutral pronoun in English. (Like he or she, but without specifiying if the person you mean is male or female.)
I started out using "they" as if it were number neutral, but I could never get the verbs to match naturally. ("When a new student comes to college, they often finds new friends."? "When a new student comes to college, they often find new friends."?)
Then I read a science fiction book that used "per" so I tried that. Never felt right.
Then someone (I think it may have been my mom, actually) pointed out that German already has such a pronoun--"zie." Well, English being a language that thinks nothing of pickpocketing other languages for spare vocabulary, I felt free to try that. That actually works okay for me. I just can't seem to persuade anyone else to use it.
But now a new third person singular gender neutral pronoun has been spotted in the wild, in general use among school kids in Baltimore. Read about it here.
"Yo." I don't know if I can get used to it. I guess I can if other people can. We'll see if it spreads.
I started out using "they" as if it were number neutral, but I could never get the verbs to match naturally. ("When a new student comes to college, they often finds new friends."? "When a new student comes to college, they often find new friends."?)
Then I read a science fiction book that used "per" so I tried that. Never felt right.
Then someone (I think it may have been my mom, actually) pointed out that German already has such a pronoun--"zie." Well, English being a language that thinks nothing of pickpocketing other languages for spare vocabulary, I felt free to try that. That actually works okay for me. I just can't seem to persuade anyone else to use it.
But now a new third person singular gender neutral pronoun has been spotted in the wild, in general use among school kids in Baltimore. Read about it here.
"Yo." I don't know if I can get used to it. I guess I can if other people can. We'll see if it spreads.