"... who studies the ways language changes, I noted the rise in people resisting the gender binary and got caught up in — and perhaps even biased toward — what I processed as a pronominal revolution. But surveys show that the number of young people identifying as nonbinary has decreased considerably over the past two years. Binary genders are on the rise again, and therefore so are the pronouns most closely associated with them...."
Writes John McWhorter, designating "He and she" as item #7 of the "Words and Phrases" list in his section of "The Year in Lists."
And that happens to be my last gift link of the year from The New York Times, so enjoy reading all the items on all the lists.
Jennifer Weiner has "9 Retrograde Moments for Women." I guess there were only 9, because if you'd had a 10th, wouldn't you go for the cliché of a 10 item list? And yet Weiner made a single item out of Erika Kirk and Usha Vance. Was it "retrograde" to put them together? Yes, but it wasn't Weiner's doing. Some people on the internet did it: they talked about JD Vance divorcing Usha and marrying Erika Kirk. Was that important enough to repeat? Weiner only purports to give us "moments"....
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86 (na) komento:
In the past, only monarchs and very, very influential people would use plural pronouns to describe themselves. It was called "nosism" and was seen in contexts like the "royal we" where a monarch speaks on behalf of their office. Nosism was used for emphasis and to convey a sense of authority. It seems sort of pathetic when normal people do it.
The other part where people use the wrong pronoun altogether, that's something altogether different...
Let the lefties contemplate their own navels, it’s preferable to their campaign to destroy the country.
“I noted the rise in people resisting the gender binary and got caught up in — and perhaps even biased toward — what I processed as a pronominal revolution. But surveys show that the number of young people identifying as nonbinary has decreased considerably over the past two years. Binary genders are on the rise again, and therefore so are the pronouns most closely associated with them...."
Hee. Now you’re caught by the biological counterrevolution.
"It was called "nosism" and was seen in contexts like the "royal we" where a monarch speaks on behalf of their office."
But people who use they/them to be talked about in the 3rd person still use I/me for the first person. And we all use the plural "you" for the 2nd person.
Iman said...
Let the lefties contemplate their own navels, it’s preferable to their campaign to destroy the country.
Not enough.
There will be no free high trust society with people in it who are against freedom and cannot be trusted.
Don't use the plural when the singular will do. Default to the masculine except when the subject is known to be feminine. I was at a 12-step meeting once where a woman was reading the "How It Works" (the beginning of that section from The Big Book of AA) and she changed all the personal pronouns of God to "she" and "her". I almost drank. (jk)
“But people who use they/them to be talked about in the 3rd person still use I/me for the first person. And we all use the plural "you" for the 2nd person.”
First and second person were never gendered in English, so that’s not an issue. Interestingly, the third person plural in German is “sie”, which is feminine.
“In English, the male embraces the female.”
Credited to Churchill, though that may be apocryphal.
A deficiency in English is the lack of a good pronoun for second person plural, common in other languages (ihr, vosotros, etc.) We default to "you all" "youse" or "y'all", the last two considered uneducated.
Like my other peeve-- the lack of a word to informally distinguish paternal versus maternal grandparents (which many languages have).
The they/them progressive social contagion spread like wildfire thru Colorado. All the kool kids were doing it. Even 5-6 year olds.
Progressives are good spreading social viruses.
yes - it's incorrect grammar- but who cares? Leftists live to destroy, dominate, grift, abuse, hate, lie, and make their followers even dumber than they are already.
McWhorter is dead wrong for many reasons, three of which I will discuss. Firstly, they/them is a craze that must pass more rapidly than most. It has greater endurance than the mood ring, but will pass into a linguistic fossil more quickly than 23-skidoo. When was the last time you heard anyone use 23-skidoo or display a chicken inspector badge, rather than just now? In a long while. The only reason you may recognize these detritus of the Roaring Twenties because you had a grandfather from that era. The users of they/them will leave few descendants to carry on their vile traditions.
Secondly, wokism is a totalitarian ideology, and like all its brethren, wokism assumes to possess world-historic import. I'm here to assure all, it does not. They/them is doomed to keep company with the thousand-year reich and the dictatorship of the proletariat.
Thirdly, wokism and they/them newspeak are indelibly coupled with corruption and economic collapse. Migration from states currently dominated by wokist bureaucracies into freedom is as certain to replace they/them with logically sound speech as the Nazis "German greeting" has been replaced with guten abend.
Actually, the proper second person plural is “all y’all”.
Yesterday some leftist socialist democratic soviet idiots gathered on a street intersection with a mini-group of obsessive Trump haters.
One leftist female held a sign that read "Antifa is the US Constitution"
These idiots also have convinced themselves that Trump is a pedophile and the Epstein files will prove it.
I don't know who that Anton Jager fellow is, but he's dead wrong. Lot's of delusion and hate in the entire article.
I never did get the use of :they/them". Pick some new words. Using "they/them" is just confusing.
As I have said before, I tend to use the later Heinlein convention* with regard to third parties of indeterminate gender: the gender of the speaker determines whether the speaker uses "he" or "she." Or, started using this convention, the gender of the speaker determines the pronouns she uses to talk about someone of indeterminate gender.
* "Convention" is probably overstating the case, given how few people subscribe to it. But then, my husband and I also gave our sons his last name and our daughter mine (to the consternation of schools, doctors, and for some reason especially dentists in two states), so maybe we're just in the business of busting stuff up.
They/them is the linguistic equivalent of the zoot suit.
"First and second person were never gendered in English, so that’s not an issue."
Huh? You CHANGE the issue and then make a point that isn't the issue and tell me I'VE missed the issue. Reread and apologize. I was responding to Spiros.
Jessica Grosse’s list proves that women — as a gender — are too lacking in analytical skills to assess medical information.
Sheriff's Deputies, County Fire Department, and EMS personnel responded Wednesday to an accident at County Road 57 and State Highway 263 where a late model pickup truck driven by a 45 year old male collided with an SUV with a 28 year old female driver and a minor male passenger and it was later learned according to sources that EMS transported them to Sacred Heart Hospital in serious condition while they had only minor injuries and declined medical attention and they were uninjured and after investigation they were detained and they charged them with failure to stop while their vehicle was towed whereas they released them after questioning and they were able to leave in their own vehicle.
McWhorter uses a lot of words to dance around an admission that his prognostication was wrong.
Correct me if I'm wrong, the "they/them" convention started as a way not to be implicitly sexist against women. Have non-binary advocates now push the needle so far we've leapfrogged back to full use binary pronouns?
After reading that article (thank you for the link, Professor!) I can see that the big thing in 2026 will be status anxiety.
I second Bill o' TX @10:15, though I am a Yankee woman (I do have two native Texan children) - with this refinement: "All y'all" is for larger groups. "Y'all" is sufficient for a small group. I have heard "y'all" used interchangeably with "you" for a single person, but in my (presumably less-than-Bill's) experience, that usage is not very common - in the cities, at least.
Resist the corrupt left.
Good grief that was ridiculous
I expected that from weiner, logic do you speak it man?
The New York Times is ... well I mostly hate hit. It's leftist.
It can go fuck itself.
I love that Elon Musk isn't a leftist fuckhead.
Wanting to be referred to as "they" might have been a bit of a fad for young people. Ditto for speaking of 64 genders. But Wikipedia articles that use people's preferred "they" pronoun will probably stick around. The use of "they" to refer to unspecified persons has been around for a lot longer than the current trans and nonbinary fashions and isn't going away either.
The "name your pronouns" fad was silly. You can just refer to people by their given names. Some people may claim to be nonbinary, but is it really necessary to bring that to the forefront? It's a little like being told to refer to people as "Black" or "gay" or whatever their chosen identity is, rather than by their actual names.
Never trust a linguist with a lisp.
Its beyond parody, are they even on the same planet?
McWhorter had a good handle on wokeness when he wore Woke Religion, and for a while he and Glenn Lowry explored themes that made them personae non grata (I can't remember - in Latin do I make that "gratae"? It seems that I should) to the left. When they reviewed the facts surrounding the death of George Floyd, for instance, they both concluded that Chauvin didn't "murder" him and probably was not responsible for his death in any way. And they were both shocked that the news media had lied so openly about those circumstances.
I haven't listened to them in a while. When I stopped, it was because McWhorter was slipping rapidly back into his feel-good, less-than-rational ways (and Lowry was getting mad about Trump, if memory serves, but that was less of a problem for me). When a person learns that she* has been cozened for decades, I expect her to stay alert to it.
* by the aforementioned later Heinlein "convention"
The left are obsessed with being victims.
Some of them are so dedicated to victim mining, they lounge around in their fuzzy pajamas, and manufacture new & absurd forms of domination thru- bullshit.
The "name your pronouns" fad was silly. You can just refer to people by their given names.
I suppose (without evidence) that it all started with second wave feminism, the whole "male is not a default" thing, wherein women were supposed to declare their femaleness defiantly in order to (?) make the point that their... uh... "lived experience" was different from men's and therefore it was properly inclusive to acknowledge that difference by using female pronouns for indeterminate persons. Something like that...?
But when the "gender identity" thing came in under the auspices of the gay rights movement, it certainly seemed to me that the main effect of using the "correct" pronouns for a person was just to shout loudly about what kind of person the subject wanted to sleep with, which I consider nobody's business.
Well its even more mixed up than that, tower of babel 2021
Pronominal Revolution would be a great name for a rock band. CC, JSM
If any one should be celebrated is erica kirk not these plastic people, in this bearded spock universe
The collective left murder Charlie Kirk - and mock his grieving wife.
They are wretched and idiotic all at once
Why would anyone think that "they/them" would become more widespread? It has never made any sense, and was quite obviously a temporary fad.
Does linguistics require the abandonment of common sense? *
*I fully understand that being Jennifer Weiner does, in fact, require the abandonment of common sense.
And we all use the plural "you" for the 2nd person.
Not all of us, y'all.
It must be done consistently see harrison bergeron
Jamie: When a person learns that she* has been cozened for decades, I expect her to stay alert to it.
Very often, writers use the singular when the reference isn't, and end up using a gendered singular pronoun, when restructuring the sentence is more logical:
When people learn they have been cozened for decades, I expect them to stay alert to it.
Jamie, the way you wrote the sentence seems to be nearly universal, but I am baffled as to why.
"They/them" was a massive hit with the children of leftists here in CO.
Jamie, the way you wrote the sentence seems to be nearly universal, but I am baffled as to why.
Heh, I'm not!
I did write in the singular on purpose, because my subject was only McWhorter and not Lowry... but then why didn't I use "he," since the person in question was known? An ill -advised attempt on my part to generalize something that was actually kind of specific. Your plural is better. (And, before I decided to start tweaking people with what I'm calling "the later Heinlein convention," was my usual way of avoiding the issue altogether.)
Being originally from western Pennsylvania, the correct 2nd person plural is "yuns". I still use it despite leaving there 45 years ago. My many years in college never penetrated, so yea, still an uneducated bumkin.
Leftists think they are the true non-conformists.
LOL. they all mimic and dutifully copy and comply with the leftist diktats delivered from on high.
So brave.
Orwell was more right then he could imagine
Notwithstanding my previous remark about "they/them" being a fad that simply doesn't make sense, it has also been my experience that intellectual ideas that make no sense very often persist way beyond what they reasonably ought to. Cf. the teachings of Marx.
boatbuilder said...
And we all use the plural "you" for the 2nd person.
Not all of us, y'all.
12/28/25, 11:01 AM
Y’all don’t?
I prefer to use the Royal Y’all at work.
How does one do gender neutral in Spanish?
Ellos/ellas?
What a crop of crap
John Henry
When they/them "culture" falls, it will happen so quickly and so utterly that its most dedicated practitioners (such as that paradigm news copy, Zavier Onasses parodies) will deny ever having substituted a plural for a factually obligatory singular. To hold on to whatever elevated status they have acquired, they will falsify their own histories with even more adamancy than they falsify everything regarding Donald Trump.
No tiene sentido (doesnt make sense)
macwherter and lowrey were right about Chauvin not murdering floid, until they got pushback from woketards
Just as I refuse to capitalize “Black” for those people, I refuse to capitalize their names, or bother spelling them right
I thought the "lake effect snow zone" second person plural form was "y'ins" - maybe it's just what I hear when "y'uns" is spoken.
Jamie said...
I second Bill o' TX @10:15, though I am a Yankee woman (I do have two native Texan children) - with this refinement: "All y'all" is for larger groups. "Y'all" is sufficient for a small group. I have heard "y'all" used interchangeably with "you" for a single person, but in my (presumably less-than-Bill's) experience, that usage is not very common - in the cities, at least.
12/28/25, 10:25 AM
Jamie asks a really interesting question. Everyone always says y’all is only a plural pronoun. But then everyone uses it in the singular:
Going to a store:
Y’all got any more bananas in the back?
Eating out:
Y’all want fries with that?
Shopping:
Y’all find everything ok?
To a friend:
Y’all lost your ever loving mind over that woman.
And finally, what is the purpose of all y’all if y’all is only plural?
We are entering a post-revolutionary period not unlike post-Thermidor France. When Robespierre's dictatorship peaked in the spring of 1794, even playing cards were banned and burned in a spasm of anti-royalist hysteria because of the stylized images of kings and queens therein. After his fell into a basket, the people knew that sanity had prevailed when card decks returned to the street vendors stalls.
With the Left, I am no longer worried about the advent of "1984".
It's not that the world of "1984" doesn't suck.
It's just that they have already moved on to bringing along "Zardoz."
I am Laslo.
Doesn't matter if it's prograde or retrograde. It's still an orbit.
These lists are a scary peek into minds on the left and how they perceive reality.
The list on lessons learned in the LA fires doesn't mention the need to refill resevoirs in a fire prone area.
The paragraph on Usha Vance was frankly racist, I thought.
But they adore Mamdani.
Is it weird that I knew it was McWhorter speaking (writing) by the time I got to the end of the title? He's very predictable.
John henry said...
“How does one do gender neutral in Spanish?
Ellos/ellas?
What a crop of crap.”
Based on “Latinx”, the logical abomination would be “Ellx” or “Ellix” (both of which auto-correct refused to let me type).
bagoh20 said...
“Being originally from western Pennsylvania, the correct 2nd person plural is "yuns". I still use it despite leaving there 45 years ago. My many years in college never penetrated, so yea, still an uneducated bumkin.”
I had a cultured educated aunt from Pittsburgh who was an eloquent speaker. She pronounced her words clearly, with no slurring or dropping word endings. So the (rare) times she used the local 2nd person plural, she said “you’uns” very clearly.
It's interesting that the New York Times is presenting a list of "lists," where they once might have published end-of-year essays. Of course, lists are easier for celebrities (and professional journalists) to write, and they're far easier to read. I guess if I were writing an NY Times list, No. 1 would be "The culture has gone full BuzzFeed."
Bill, Republic of Texas said...
“Actually, the proper second person plural is “all y’all”.”
One of suburbs of Cincinnati across the Ohio River is the City of Florence, Kentucky. There was a water tower visible from the I-75 with “Florence Mall” on it advertising the then new Florence Mall. After the licensing contract was up, the city reworked it to say “Florence Y’all”.
john mosby said...
“Pronominal Revolution would be a great name for a rock band. CC, JSM”
(With apologies to Jefferson Airplane)
Look what's happening out in the tweets (got a revolution, got to revolution)
More than just emojis down in the tweets (got a revolution, got to revolution)
Oh, ain't it amazing? All the people I meet (got a revolution, got to revolution)
One gender got “he”
One gender got “she”
This gender got no idea what to be.
(Pick up the cry)
Hey, now it's time for “you” and “me” (got a revolution, got to revolution)
Hey, come on now, say “he”, “she”, and “thee” (got a revolution, got to revolution)
Who will take “he or she” from you? “They” will, and who they be? Whoa
We are the Pronominals of America (Pronominals of America)
Pronominals of America (Pronominals of America)
Shorter version: 'Our campaign to strip the meaning from common English words and grammatical elements has failed, as have our efforts to confuse the proletariat to make them easier to hoodwink. The Revolution has been paused. Long Live the Revolution !'
'They' has been in use a long time to refer to an individual: "they don't know what they are talking about". It was just a casual replacement for he/she when the subject is known.
Twice the opportunities to get laid!!! Well, only theoretically. For my generation (Boomer), the scam stating for “I’ll fuck anything” was “I’m bi-sexual.” In my experience with a couple of male friends who tried this scam, the actual outcome was never getting laid at all. The ladies weren’t buying it.
Rocco: That is pure genius. CC, JSM
Except buzzfeed isnt a thing anymore
I read through Jennifer Weiner's list. Meghan Markle is not a divisive figure. I've yet to read anything positive about her. On the plus side, most people can't generate enough interest in her to actively dislike her.
Third person pronouns refer to people who aren’t present mostly. Why do people care what others call them when they aren’t present?
Re: Skirizi ad - Who is still hearing ads on television? They must be an old.
Whatever happened to Thee and Thine and Thou? Are they only used to address God anymore? And of course old quotes: "Get thee to a nunnery!" and the like.
One real reason they/their as a pronoun is dying is because it's plural being used as a singular, so it causes immense confusion when intermixed with plural. "They went to Their party" means.... what, exactly? One person going home to a party that that person is holding, or is a group of people going to someone else's party?
The point of language is to communicate, and adopting they/their as personal pronouns makes things more confusing and less clear, so that's a major reason for the pushback and why the left's woke attack is doomed to fail. Another set of words would have to be put into use to replace the plural nature of they/their in order for those words to be repurposed as singular tense.
Nothing could be meaner
Than a Jennie with a weiner
In the morning
Nothing could be finah
Than a Jane with a vagina
In the morning
Some folks like to wake up
To bacon and eggs…
McWhorter came off as fairly reasonable on BHTV, but ultimately he buys into almost everything the Left pushes.
How to say "non binary" in Spanish? Twitter users are still laughing about the on-line Spanish dictionary that gave the Spanish translation as either "no binario" or "no binaria", depending on the gender of the person described.
Es ridiculo
Jennifer Wiener or Jennifer whiner?
Comes off as anti-white and anti-Christian. Eww, a pretty blond girl made a Jeans commercial. Ugh, Mrs. Kirk asked Vance's wife did she ever consider the Christian alternative. And Megan Markle really blew it. She could've sassed America about Gun Control and evil nature Tucker Carlson - but didn't.
Her comment on the Girl power rocket into space lost me. Did she disapprove of the trip or the critics of the trip?
Interesting that Thee and Thou have been dropped but other languages still the formal and informal versions of "You"
I was once in a high-school faculty meeting where we discussed a male student who wanted to be referred to as 'they'. We were told to go along with that. As soon as the meeting was over I realized I hadn't asked the obvious question: "they is" or "they are"? I still don't the know the answer to that (should have been) obvious question.
mccullough said...
Third person pronouns refer to people who aren’t present mostly.
That's true in the strictest sense of verbal communication but in written communication switching to the third person pronoun after establishing the antecedent by name is common. That means an email addressing a group will often include pronouns for one or more people in the distribution.
Jamie, I followed Glenn Loury some and John McWhorter for a while on Substack. I recall both Loury and McWhorter reacting favorably to "The Fall of Minneapolis" but (after refreshing my memory via Google) both of them eventually backtracked from thinking it was a fairly unbiased look at Floyd's death.
re Usha Vance and Erica Kirk
What else is new? We've been assured by the loonies posting here that Melania is gonna leave DJT any day for several years.
like james downey noted in billy madison 'I feel dumber for having read that (well skimmed it)
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