RE: Gender neutral - any new developments in your neck of the woo ds?

[Watson Laughton <WLaughton -at- orphan -dot- com>]

>>Like the Shakespearean "they"

I have yet to find an instance in the writings of Shakespeare, Jane Austen,
or any of the other stars in the literary firmament where "they" use the
pronoun in a singular neuter sense OTHER than when referring to persons of
indeterminate (or non-existent) NUMBER (as well as gender), such as:

"God send every one their heart's desire!"
Much Ado About Nothing, Act III Scene 4 

No case I can find that is analogous to "when the user sits down at the
computer, they must enter their password in order to access...."

However, I DO find material penned by the literati such as what is below;
perhaps that is what the authors of the infant-seat instructional manuals
were striving for:

----James Joyce - Finnegan's Wake - 1939 -----
The babbelers with their thangas vain have been (confusium hold them!) they
were and went; thigging thugs were and houhnhymn songtoms were and comely
norgels were and pollyfool1 fiansees. Menn have thawed, clerks have
surssurhummed, the blond has sought of the brune: Elsekiss thou may, mean
Kerry piggy?: and the duncledames have countered with the hellish fellows:
Who ails tongue coddeau, aspace of dumbillsilly? And they fell upong one
another: and themselves they have fallen. And still nowanights and by nights
of yore do all bold floras of the field to their shyfaun lovers say only:
Cull me ere I wilt to thee! and, but a little later: Pluck me whilst I
blush! Well may they wilt, marry, and profusedly blush, be troth! For that
saying is as old as the howitts. Lave a whale a while in a whillbarrow
(isn't it the truath I'm tallin ye?) to have fins and flippers that shimmy
and shake. Tim Timmycan timped hir, tampting Tam. Fleppety!Flippety!
Fleapow! Hop! 
----James Joyce - Finnegan's Wake-----

Fleppety!Flippety! Fleapow! Hop! Indeed! Of course, his quote below is quite
telling, even though he uses "he" rather than "they"....

"The demand I make of my reader is that he should devote his whole life to
reading my works." 
        -James Joyce  

And don't forget to insert Tab A into Slot B.

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