[rhema]

One of my favorite essays on the topic is by the redoubtable Marianne M. Jennings: Cranky Nitpickers make writing a [sic] experience, the first three paragraphs of which follow:

AS THE AUTHOR of textbooks, I have posted bail quite a few times for the language police who inflict their sandbox rules upon our culture and mediocrity upon our literature. In my neophyte days, I employed the masculine pronoun in my texts, using only "he" and ˜him," in the anthropomorphic sense. People began jumping from windows, so I embraced pluralism. Every example had its participants and pronouns doubled. I used "theys,""thems," and even "yuns," whenever western Pennsylvania coal-mining roots overpowered the grammar hammer.

When my dedication to pluralism resulted in two CEOs running one company, I returned to singularism and mixed my "he's and "she's" together.

Users began counting the number of "he's" and "she's," checking for equal pronoun distribution. An editor vetoed my suggested dedication for the first gender equity edition: "AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY/AFFIRMATIVE ACTION TEXT. ALL PRONOUNS WELCOME." . . .

[nicmarlo]

Her creation, "hu," would replace he, she, him, her and his.....DeLuna says "hu" has been well-received within the transgender community.

Speaking of ridiculous....ping.

[Zack Attack]

He is hu, she is hu, even an it is a hu?

What will all the hu’s down in hu-ville do?

[Billthedrill]

DeLuna says "hu" has been well-received within the transgender community.

That community is most notable for the innovative use of things other than pronouns. In any case human beings do not have "genders." Words have genders. Human beings have sexes. Vive la Différence.

Such acrobatic stupidity (one is reminded of a diver doing a one and a half gainer into a dry pool) as DeLuna's neologism will not "catch on" unless it is mandated, and the real language Nazis know that perfectly well. It will be coming soon to academia, bet on it. There tortured syntax is perfectly justified as long as it is the interest of (shudder) "gender and social justice."

But the control of language is not the control of thought despite some decades of earnest academic asseveration to the contrary. It isn't even really the control of language. That has, to my knowledge, happened only in one extraordinary case, and Latin has been dead for a very long time now.

[gidget7]

“Folks in the transgender community have long charged that “he” or “she” forces them into categories they don’t necessarily identify with. “

Those folks have a mental disorder. We are being preached to about giving the mentally ill preference when we use the English language. That makes US insane as well.

PC should take it’s rightful place, well hidden behind that huge rock, where all lies hide, never to be bowed to or spoken again.

[savedbygrace]

Hu’s on first?

[razorback-bert]

You’ll let me know when this is settled.

[rockrr]

"The idea is just to communicate."

The idea is to control people by bastardizing the language. I know because I asked the mailman the last time she came by...

[Silly]

Everyone:

In case I spontaneously break into Spanish this evening, may I use the familiar ‘tu’ form with you?

Silly

[Publius6961]

But to modern ears, using "he" across the board sounds more jarring than "they."

Whoa!
I zinger in the argument. Obviously, if I still prefer "he" I am by definition not modern.

Pity. I may need to start looking into Ambien.

Alas, modern man. what is he to do?

Now, where are those socks I need to sort?

[RichInOC]

[cue Roger Daltrey and the fellas:]

“Hu are you? Hu, hu? Hu, hu?”

[Charlespg]

The latest such pronoun comes from DeAnn DeLuna, who teaches literature at Johns Hopkins University. Her creation, "hu," would replace he, she, him, her and his. Because it's just one word, unlike an entire set of pronouns, DeLuna says it's easier to use than other gender-neutral pronouns. And the word (pronounced "huh"), trips off the tongue easily.

These people should be strongly encouraged to commit suicide

[Savage Beast]

Would we say, “Give it to hu” or “Give it to hum”? “You were with hu” or “You were with hum”?This could get very confusing.

[Zeppo]

The latest such pronoun comes from DeAnn DeLuna, who teaches literature at Johns Hopkins University.

Someone should tell DeAnn DeLuna that she is missing her true calling in life. Why is she wasting time by trifling with a few pesky English pronouns? Someone should introduce DeLuna to the treasure trove hidden in plain sight within the French language - there's a dictionary full of gendered nouns just begging for the application of her impressive neutering skills.

[ModelBreaker]

Or, we could just sit around sipping espresso and speaking Esperanto.

[goldstategop]

Its just stupid. Liberals are worried over gender exclusion when the world faces more serious problems. They love to play word games at a time when women's rights are threatened by far more than the presence of masculine grammar rules in the English language.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[azhenfud]

“Ne,” “hizer,” “thon,” “shem” and “herm” are just a few that came along and faded quickly.

---

Must’ve been rejects from Disney’s Dwarf closet.

[CougarGA7]

Hu(h)?

[Aquinasfan]

Folks in the transgender community have long charged that "he" or "she" forces them into categories they don't necessarily identify with.

What's wrong with "it"?

[Centurion2000]

Someone's already done this. Here's a perfectly good table for non-gendered pronouns.

Gender	non- gender- specific pronoun	non- gender- specific personal pronoun	male	female	hemoth (hermoph- rodite)	neut (asexual - person neuter) e.g. neuter bioids, many AIs & aioids	object (impersonal neuter)	plural (generic)
singular (Subject)	e / ey	per	he	she	se	je	it	they
singular (Object)	em	per	him	her	hir	jer	it	them
possessive adjective	eir	pers	his	hers	hir	jers	its	their
possessive pronoun	eirs	pers	his	hers	hirs	jers	its	theirs
Reflexive	emself or eirself	perself	himself	herself	hirself	jerself	itself	themself or theirself

Now ... why did they do it? Any person that is eventually uploaded or sentient robot/AI will not have a gender.

Orion's Arm Linguistics

[Patriotic1]

Matthew Sharpe, who teaches English at Wesleyan, says he's politically sympathetic to the cause of gender-neutral pronouns. "Aesthetically, though, they rankle," he said in an e-mail. "But so does 'their,' which more and more people seem to use as the possessive form of the general pronoun. I don't think we've found a good solution to the problem yet."

Actually, we have. He mentioned it in the previous sentence. Language will be what most people use. Over time, the grammar police and academics will come around.