Fun fact: English speakers have used plural they as gender-indefinite-human* pronoun since at LEAST 1600, if not earlier (I COULD try to sift for Middle English examples and probably should, one day...). I believe widespread objection to the practice is a product of 18th or 19th century grammarians, universal education, and class differentiation (people who know The Rules of latinate grammar as applied in english, vis a vis split infinitives and so on = better educated and likely more upper class than others).
* That is, not for a neuter singular, but for the 'if anyone in this mixed classroom knows the answer HE/THEY should speak up' function. HE is preffered only because of latin-derived rules which make more sense in languages where grammatical gender extends to all nouns.
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regna
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Date: 2013-10-12 04:41 pm (UTC)* That is, not for a neuter singular, but for the 'if anyone in this mixed classroom knows the answer HE/THEY should speak up' function. HE is preffered only because of latin-derived rules which make more sense in languages where grammatical gender extends to all nouns.