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0 pointsthret11y ago0 comments

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-she1.htm

'he' was already genderless. 'She' was introduced to signify female, and 'he' become masculine by comparison. Perhaps in introducing 'she' we should have introduced something like 'ghe' for male, then we could keep 'he' as undefined, and everyone would be happy.

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philh11y ago

That's not quite what it says. It says that there was a time (1200 years ago, in a different language) when he existed with heo, which was female; and then heo morphed to he; and then she was introduced. It doesn't specify whether he was originally masculine or ambiguous.

thretOP11y ago

Yes, but it does specify that 'he' was used for both male and female at the time 'she' was introduced in Middle English.

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0 pointsthret11y ago0 comments

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-she1.htm

0 comments

philh11y ago

thretOP11y ago

Yes, but it does specify that 'he' was used for both male and female at the time 'she' was introduced in Middle English.

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