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diff --git a/src/journal/10-mercurian-pronouns.rst b/src/journal/10-mercurian-pronouns.rst index ea3b35a..3f32fa6 100644 --- a/src/journal/10-mercurian-pronouns.rst +++ b/src/journal/10-mercurian-pronouns.rst @@ -4,41 +4,26 @@ author: Johannes Löthberg author_link: /~kyrias/about.html -So, you might or might not know that English pronouns are sort of annoying in -some regards. -For example, there aren’t a canonical set of singular third-person, -gender-neutral pronouns. +.. role:: sc + +:sc:`So, you might or might` not know that English pronouns are sort of annoying in some regards. +For example, there aren’t a canonical set of singular third-person, gender-neutral pronouns. Some people, past-me included, use “they” as a singular pronoun. -There are people that try to use unfounded arguments to prove that use somehow -wrong, but they generally use rather flawed arguments. -Using it as a singular pronoun has been done for literally centuries, and some -people compare the use of singular *they* to the use of a singular *you* -instead of *thou*, though I have gotten no reasonable reply from people arguing -against singular *they* about that point yet. +There are people that try to use unfounded arguments to prove that use somehow wrong, but they generally use rather flawed arguments. +Using it as a singular pronoun has been done for literally centuries, and some people compare the use of singular *they* to the use of a singular *you* +instead of *thou*, though I have gotten no reasonable reply from people arguing against singular *they* about that point yet. There are alternatives to the singular “they” however. -One set, which is commonly, though inaccurately [1]_, known as the Spivak -pronouns, was first used by James Rogers in 1890, who created his set from the -pronouns “he” and “them”. -Later, in 1975, Christine Elverson created what she called her “transgender -pronouns” by dropping the ”th” from the pronouns “they”, “them”, and “their”. -Michael Spivak, who is often attributed with the invention of the set of -pronouns, used his versions of in the manual `The Joy of TeX`_ (1983), though -said in 2006 that he did not invent them himself. [2]_ +One set, which is commonly, though inaccurately [1]_, known as the Spivak pronouns, was first used by James Rogers in 1890, who created his set from the pronouns “he” and “them”. +Later, in 1975, Christine Elverson created what she called her “transgender pronouns” by dropping the ”th” from the pronouns “they”, “them”, and “their”. +Michael Spivak, who is often attributed with the invention of the set of pronouns, used his versions of in the manual `The Joy of TeX`_ (1983), though said in 2006 that he did not invent them himself. [2]_ -Personally I prefer the Elverson pronoun set since a simple “E” isn’t easily -distinguishable from “he” audibly in some contexts. +Personally I prefer the Elverson pronoun set since a simple “E” isn’t easily distinguishable from “he” audibly in some contexts. -The previous incarnations haven't been complete though, and have left the -possessive pronoun and reflexive versions undefined, so HalosGhost_ and I have -decided to use what we call the Mercurian set, using the same system as -Elverson did and dropping the “th” from the third-person plural pronouns, but -properly defining all possibilities. +The previous incarnations haven't been complete though, and have left the possessive pronoun and reflexive versions undefined, so HalosGhost_ and I have decided to use what we call the Mercurian set, using the same system as Elverson did and dropping the “th” from the third-person plural pronouns, but properly defining all possibilities. -The rule for making the Mercurian pronouns is just to drop the “th” from the -plural pronouns, which makes it easily generalizable to any plural third-person -constructs. +The rule for making the Mercurian pronouns is just to drop the “th” from the plural pronouns, which makes it easily generalizable to any plural third-person constructs. Following is a non-exhaustive table of some of the pronoun sets: [3]_ |