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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!bentley!kwh
From: kwh@bentley.UUCP (KW Heuer)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Letter Salutations
Message-ID: <649@bentley.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 18-Mar-86 11:08:52 EST
Article-I.D.: bentley.649
Posted: Tue Mar 18 11:08:52 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 21-Mar-86 03:58:13 EST
References: <286@spp3.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Liberty Corner
Lines: 15

In article <286@spp3.UUCP> spp3!ansok (Gary Ansok) writes:
>As long as we're talking about non-sexist language, are there any
>suggestions on how to open a letter to someone whose gender you
>don't know?  ... Which do you folks prefer:
[ condensed into an egrep expression for brevity.  --kwh ]
>Dear (((Mr\.|Ms\.|Mr\./Ms\.|J\.) )? Smith|Sir|Madam|Sir or Madam):

I usually use "J.  Smith" or "Sir/Madam".  I predict that in the relatively
near future, the title "Sir" will be considered neuter, like "Master".  (A
previous posting noted that "Mistress of Arts" is a forgotten degree.)

Or possibly, following the contraction of "Miss/Mrs." into "Ms.", there will
a contraction of "Mr./Ms." into "M." or something.  ("M." is a bad choice
because it looks like an initial, and conflicts with the French title;
"Comrade" is a nice neutral word but will never be accepted in the USA.)