January 11. 2010 19:38

Re "they" as singular: sorry, this has nothing to do with avoiding sexism today but rather has a long history. I wish I'd kept the source of this, but here's what's in my files:

"Well, taking my own advice, I consulted a good dictionary and learned, to my surprise and I assume to yours that _they_ is a borrowing, c. 1200, from Old Norse into Middle English.

AHD has this to say:

Word History:  Incredible as it may seem, the English pronoun they is not really an English pronoun. They comes from Old Norse and is a classic example of the profound impact of that language on English: because pronouns are among the most basic elements of a language, it is rare for them to be replaced by borrowings from foreign sources. The Old Norse pronouns their, theira, theim worked their way south from the Danelaw, the region governed by the Old Norse-speaking invaders of England, and first appeared in English about 1200, gradually replacing
the Old English words he, him, hora. The nominative or subject case (modern English they) seems to have spread first. William Caxton, who brought the printing press to England, uses they, hir, hem in his earlier printed works (after 1475) and thei, their, theim in his later ones. This is clear evidence of the spread of these Norse forms southward, since Caxton did not speak northern English natively (he was born in Westminster). The native English objective case of the third plural, him or hem, may well survive, at least colloquially, in modern
English 'em, as in "Give 'em back!"

As it has been used in the singular at least since 1300 (and maybe since its original borrowing), that usage seems to be well established. Borrowed words often bend the rules of their host languages." [end of quoted material]

Kathleen Jun