Re: Gender neutral

mb schrieb:
Do German girls feel offended every time they are called "it", as
Maedchen, by their grammar? Strangely, those of them who have the
syndrome of common pronoun animism do not protest at being neutered
into a thing by the specific "it".

If German girls are called "it", German foreskins are called "she".
This is the kind of translation you can get on those instant
translation websites -- great fun (and absolute codswallop).

Talking of different languages: I have a dim memory of Spanish people
using the plural in things like "Me llamaron" to mean "I had a phone
call (and I don't want to say who it was)" -- am I mistaken, or is this
possible?
There would be no gender issue involved here.

This occurred to me because I think we may be making too much of the
he/she issue in thinking about this kind of "they". After all, there
is a use of "they" in English simply to generalise / be vague about the
subject -- or at least they say there is.

Sally

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