to English teachers, poets, and linguists:
The language is in great need of a genderless, neutral pronoun. Poets must always compromise when referring to the deity, or when identifying anyone in the third person, and not wishing to confine that identification to gender. It is a limitation for which the time has come to be resolved.
The advent of the internet is that opportunity. Through lists, academicians from everywhere may confer together, make suggestions, have them analyzed, and eventually reach a concensus. What a boon to writers and thinkers that would be! I believe that this impediment to consistency and precision can easily be overcome without rancor, and virtually without prejudice. Yes, I have a few suggestions of my own, if anyone cares, but this is not the time to get into that. Ladies and gentlemen, heroines and heros. distinguished minds everywhere, may we begin? It is in our power to get this done. If there are obstacles, they are insignificant. Let us be consumed with the opportunity, not the obstacles. We can do it. Why wait? What better time?
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Namaste! "I honor the place within you where the entire universe resides. I honor the place within you of Love and Light, of Truth and Peace. When you are in that place in you, and I am in that place in me, there is only ONE of us." Please give me your reactions to the poems and thoughts in this blog. (Critiques and disagreements are equally welcome) Simply click anywhere you see "Comment" and then on "Post a comment." I'll really appreciate your doing this, and will often respond. Peace!
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About Me
- Dean
- Retired, former radio announcer, teacher, pipe organ technician...now an internet addict, poet, and progressive patron of the arts.
1 comment:
Let me throw in the first kernel...
What do you think of:
Thon -- that one; he, she or it. A pronoun of the third person, common gender, a solidified and contracted form of that one. It is proposed as a substitute in any case where the use of a restrictive pronoun involves either inaccuracy or obscurity, or the non-employment necessitates an awkward repetition -- The Standard Dictionary.
Thon was proposed in 1858 by Charles Crozat Converse, of Erie, Pennsylvania, as a substitute pronoun. I found the following examples, first as ordinarily written and afterward with the substitution of the genderless pronoun, illustrating the grammatical deficiencies of the English language in this particular and the proposed method of removal: "If Harry or his wife comes, I will be on hand to meet him or her (or whichever appears)." "Each pupil must learn his or her own lesson." With the substitution of thon: "If Harry or his wife comes, I will be on hand to meet thon (i.e., that one who comes)," "Each pupil must learn thon's lesson (i.e., his or her own)."
Awkward, yes?
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