Tilting at (lexical) windmills

[eldriwolf]

As a Witch, and a sometime word-smith, I try to be careful of the words I choose, and how I use them . From time to time I review the things I say, and perhaps choose a new windmill to tilt at

Comments

[mudpriestess]

I've been a copyeditor for ten years and I *love* that you are promoting "everyone / their". Not only is it the most simple and elegant solution to the problem of gender inclusivity and assumption-making, it is so widespread already in casual usage that it is going to become "correct" usage whether people like it or not. ("Zie" and "hir," like Esperanto, are never going to catch on, and using "he" as the neutral non-gendered pronoun is just... not polite anymore, if it ever was.)

"Their" allows people to avoid making assumptions about the gender of the person they're speaking about, which is really important. If I'm asking a new acquaintance about their partner, I don't want my language to contain encoded assumptions about the partner's gender and the acquaintance's sexuality, which is what using a gendered pronoun would do. And saying "his or her" is just clunky and stupid (also too indicative of binary thinking). "Their" solves all these problems--and people already use it! I think people who are against it are forgetting that language is dynamic and always evolving, not something that has been perfected in the latest edition of Webster's.

btw I'm a student of Thorn's, in one of her two-year trainings, so I am still very attached to saying "the work"--although I hear what you are saying about its misuse. Lots to think about there.

[eldriwolf]

Thank you!--I first noticed using 'their' in that way in an E Nesbit book--the Quote is from "Five Children and It", I think.

Zie and Hir *Are* clunky.
---In speaking, one can sometimes use 'A' and A's- and folks wont even notice! (I got That one from Ursula K Le Guinn.)
It blurs a bit much towards 'dilect', though. (you know how vowels smear) It sounds somewhat like dropped 'h' He---

*-*-*-*-*
"Work" is a hard one, I Still sometimes use it..and have added "labor"(as in Giving Birth) to the list of useful substitutes. It aint All play, becoming Feri, but neither do I do it for pay..

--I often recommend a book by Lewis Hyde--"The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic life of Property"

Thanks Again
Good Hunting!
eldri