• Skua@kbin.social
    4·
    1 year ago

    Singular they goes back at least as far as Shakespeare. Also, “you” was originally a plural pronoun.

    • auth@lemmy.ml
      11·
      1 year ago

      Cant “you” still be used to mean many people? “do you all” “you guys” etc…

      Also, there’s a lot of Shakespeare speech that is kind of incomprehensible today.

      • Skua@kbin.social
        1·
        1 year ago

        Yes, it can, but my point was that it used to only mean multiple people and we don’t have any trouble using it to refer to just one

      • Not_Leader@kbin.social
        1·
        1 year ago

        Also, there’s a lot of Shakespeare speech that is kind of incomprehensible today.

        yeah like thou for the second person singular is pretty odd… wait a second

      • explodicle@local106.comEnglish
        11·
        1 year ago

        I don’t think anyone is suggesting that we eliminate the plural “they”, either.

        If Shakespeare’s English is too hard to comprehend today, then we can make it easier by switching one part back. It also proves that they’re ;-) not just trying to sound more important or whatever transphobic bs.