Calling all grammar geeks and word nerds [View all]
http://www.thecrier.net/our_columnists/article_88290032-ea41-11e9-9832-9b621c002356.html
Am I the only grammar geek /word nerd up in arms over the neverending changes to pronouns and words weve used all our lives? As long ago as 2016, I climbed up on my soapbox in one of my Ink Penn blogs to protest the notion that they could be used as a singular pronoun:
they can be used to refer to only one person. Thats right; you may think they means two or more people or animals, but not any longer. Now, because it can be awkward or possibly offensive to say something like, We want any student to feel as though he or she can speak up, its been decided that they in place of he or she is acceptable.
The Washington Post added this usage to its style guide, and the Canadian Government endorsed it. After all these years of rewriting sentences to avoid having to say he/she, it seems I have one less thing to worry about.
In the same blog, I bemoaned the fact that Mx had joined Mr, Mrs and Ms as a gender-neutral title. Three years hence, a shift to Mx and they seems pretty darned simple. Why? Because I read an article in the Wall Street Journal citing a blog post titled, Gender Neutral Pronouns What They Are & How to Use Them. Though it mentioned using they, them, their as easy non-offensive ways to refer to individuals, it also provided this list of replacement pronouns for the ones were all accustomed to:
He/She Zie, Sie, Ey, Ve, Tey, E
Him/Her Zim, Sie, Em, Ver, Ter, Em
His/Her Zir, Hir, Eir, Vis, Tem, Eir
His/Hers Zis, Hirs, Eirs, Vers, Ters, Eirs
Himself/Herself Zieself, Hirself, Eirself, Verself, Terself, Emself