I believe this issue is worth discussing because it bears on our professional development and performance. It seems to be generally true that European languages all have gender-distinct pronouns at least in the singular. Same is true of (most?) languages of India. European languages and modern Indian languages share a common proto-type ancestor. It makes sense that Indo-European had gender-distinct pronouns and that its progeny would also. It seems very unlikely that such a basic linguistic feature would disappear over time.
On the other hand, most languages of eastern Asia and South Pacific--such as those spoken in the Philippines--do not have gender-distinct pronouns. Nor do those of Sub-Saharan Africa. One pronoun fits all. It's especially difficult for such a learner to develop an instinctive feel for gender pronouns when speaking a second language that demands this distinction. Mixing up pronouns may be one of the last obstacles to overcome for a language learner. The he/she/they conundrum in English is just another flavor of the same problem. Once we commit to the sex of a pronoun, it's hard to use it for the opposite gender, even to the point where we give into number anomaly in order avoid gender anomaly. The boy-girl distinction sits at the core of our world view. . . . J.O.Skip Robinson Southern California Edison Company Electric Dragon Team Paddler SHARE MVS Program Co-Manager 626-302-7535 Office 323-715-0595 Mobile jo.skip.robin...@sce.com -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Tom Brennan Sent: Wednesday, June 17, 2015 2:19 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: OT STCK question My wife is from a country where the same word is used for both he and she. I've heard translations like, "A man came into the store today, and she complained about the service". I have to stop for a second because it sounds like we're talking about two separate people. So I vote for a new word, and that would solve the Caitlyn issue too. Ed Finnell wrote: > Well we could produce a new word. > > Maybe: ze, zey, zer, zoo.....Leave it as an exercise for the > reader-past pluperfect subjunctive! > > > In a message dated 6/17/2015 3:31:50 P.M. Central Daylight Time, > 0000000433f07816-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu writes: > > "Pat tells me that they enjoy a glass of wine with their meal when > they're dining alone." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
