Why can't we just make a new pronoun that is "they" but singular?
Like "Theya".
Theya is my friend. It's singular, non gendered, and then we can just get rid of every pronoun except "they" and "theya".
Like "Theya".
Theya is my friend. It's singular, non gendered, and then we can just get rid of every pronoun except "they" and "theya".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Part_of_speech#Open_and_closed...
This really just a way of rephrasing what the parent comment says. By some reckonings, in English, pronouns are a closed class, and verbs are an open class. Some languages have it the other way around, where you can invent new pronouns but not new verbs (you have to take a noun X and say “do X” or something like that).
But honorifics are tricky and some people feel very strongly about them--e.g. Dr. for someone with a PhD.