So, I took a linguistics class once, and one of the things I learned was that English has no second-person plural anymore. We have "they," which is third-person plural and "we," which is first-person plural, but nothing to take the place of "ye," which was used in that way until a few hundred years ago when things like "you" and "yours" began to replace such things as "thou" and "thine." And then I realized that English does does a second-person plural: "y'all." Unfortunately, it's dialectal, and use in the mainstream is still limited to jokes or parodies. I predict, however, that someday the need for a second-person plural will be felt in the land, and instead of returning to the old ways, we will embrace this new phrase, and it will become free from negative association and find its proper place in the everyday use of Americans and English-speakers everywhere.
Also, I think "they" and "them" will become the gender-neutral pronoun everyone seems so desperately to be looking for, not werf.
Sadly, despite my southern origins, I lack southern mannerisms in my speech. This includes saying "ya'll." It is a tragedy, indeed. However, I do say "fixin' to."
ReplyDeleteI agree about the "they" and "their" becoming the gender neutral pronouns. Because they pretty much already are with everyone I've ever talked to.
Ooo, you read the Board? You should read Katya's blog! It's full of good librarian nerdiness.
http://physicschick.blogspot.com/