"The Oxford English Dictionary traces singular they back to 1375, where it appears in the medieval romance William and the Werewolf. Except for the old-style language of that poem, its use of singular they to refer to an unnamed person seems very modern. Here’s the Middle English version: ‘Hastely hiȝed eche . . . þei neyȝþed so neiȝh . . . þere william & his worþi lef were liand i-fere.’ In modern English, that’s: ‘Each man hurried . . . till they drew near . . . where William and his darling were lying together.’

Since forms may exist in speech long before they’re written down, it’s likely that singular they was common even before the late fourteenth century. That makes an old form even older."

When I looked for singular 'they' in Shakespeare, he used it to refer to burglar in an analogy. I leave finding that example as an exercise for the reader.

#grammar #singularThey
https://www.oed.com/discover/a-brief-history-of-singular-they/?tl=true

Ireland is stuck in a legal drama over an ex-teacher. #EnochBurke and his large family of religious fundamentalist headbangers are in a four-year battle with #WilsonsHospital school. The dispute began with the school's request that staff respect a pupil's request that when a pronoun is used, they be referred to by the prounoun "they".

#SingularThey is at least 651 years old, which may be a bit modern for the #BurkeFamily.

The #OED tells the story at https://www.oed.com/discover/a-brief-history-of-singular-they/

En #Louisiane, on dirait qu'un #singularthey se propage parmi les #francophones. Par exemple, dans mes données:

«SON cousin, ÇA reste à Bâton-Rouge ... tous LEURS amis dit ...»

Je retrouve ça tous les temps en temps dans mes données, équivalent à «they/their» en anglais.

#linguistique #français
#françaislouisianais #variationlinguistique #changementlinguistique

I don't like reading texts where the #singularthey is used. IMO it should be used the pronoun #she to refer a #person of any gender.

#littleme #complaining #mindless #practices

#HyruleWarriorsAgeOfCalamity uses the singular “they”. “Help Zelda make their way to the Targeted Position” kind of thing. First #Nintendo game to do this?

And, hey, listen, even if it’s some sort of solution to a technical problem (maybe the developers can’t be sure if it’s one character or many, or who it is, or something like that), it’s still a great argument for gender-neutral language. It’s simpler!

#pronouns #SingularThey

Now seems like a good time to share this article. Singular ‘they’ has been around since 1375, but some browser developer thinks it's too ‘political’.

https://www.oed.com/discover/a-brief-history-of-singular-they/?tl=true

#Ladybird #LadybirdBrowser #SingularThey #OED #OxfordEnglishDictionary

One of the best masters dissertations I've ever had the pleasure of supervising is "Perception and production of singular They in British English" by Nadir Junco, now available online: https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/41355

"...reading time data indicates a significant demographic effect which has not been reported in previous studies..."

Check it out!!

#linguistics #sociolinguistics #queer #genderqueer #nonbinary #trans #pronouns #research #new #newresearch #singularthey #they