Re: [ejlist] DIE SCHERE 42 - Text - Translation - Language

[Rebing@t-online.de (Rebing)]

Gary Kern schrieb:
> Traditionally the pronoun was masculine, but after the onslaught of
> feminism it has taken two forms:
>
> Traditional:  One would prefer that his views were taken seriously.
>
> Transitional (10 yrs ago):  One would prefer that his or her views were
> taken seriously.
>
> Today (pop culture):  One would prefer that their views were taken
> seriously.
>
> That's right, in the pop culture, including TV news, the plural form is
> used, even when the subject is singular.  A newsman--correction, I mean
> newsperson--certainly knows what they want.
>
> GK
>
Gary, your Sprachkritik was great fun!

Some of this weird PC acrobatics has seeped into the German language, too. In 
German we have "Lehrer" (teachers) and "Lehrerinnen" (female teachers), but 
since times immemorial everybody had put "Lehrer" when meaning teachers in 
general. Along came feminism and the Political Correctness craze und suddenly 
that practice reeks of discrimination. The other day I came across a new book 
about teachers for teachers. The otherwise quite sensible author felt compelled 
to signal each and every time when talking of teachers that he was aware of the 
fact that there are also teachers of the other sex around. So in the course of 
his book he wrote several hundred times "LehrerInnen"(no misprint) whenever he 
meant just teachers ("Lehrer").


But the fun won't last. Soon such quirks will be mainstream and general 
practice. It has happened before. If you still wince today when encountering 
hideous neologisms like "beinhalten" (instead of "enthalten"), "erstellen" 
(instead of "schreiben, verfassen, aufstellen"), "zögerlich" (for "allmählich") 
those who blithely use such Newspeak any day will find your qualms utterly 
incomprehensible. At best you will be regarded as being very old. 


Irrelevant stuff on the EJ list? Well, it's about a language EJ never wrote. 
Lucus a non lucendo…

Günter