• sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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    4 hours ago

    “theyal” and “theyal’ll” as shorthand for “they all” and “they all will.”

    Oof, “they’ll’ll” sounds awful.

    I wish we could use “it” instead, but unfortunately, that’s offensive since it has connections to inanimate objects and non-human animals. If we could somehow break that meaning, maybe we’d get somewhere w/ a gender-neutral, third person singular pronoun. Or maybe we can use one of the created ones (though per/pers is awful IMO). But we also have words that don’t have gender-neutral terms, such as uncle/aunt, but for some reason we do have many others, like cousin.

    It’s an annoying nut to crack, which is why I tend to use people’s names more and only use they/them when there is no reasonable alternative.