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From: debray@megaron.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.books,sci.lang
Subject: Re: Gender distinctions
Message-ID: <1277@megaron.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 3-Nov-86 22:16:56 EST
Article-I.D.: megaron.1277
Posted: Mon Nov  3 22:16:56 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 5-Nov-86 05:36:51 EST
References: <16227@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <2177@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU> <8224@watrose.UUCP> <2181@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU>
Organization: Dept of CS, U of Arizona, Tucson
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Xref: watmath net.books:4365 sci.lang:76

> I think Hofstadter mentions some language where there is no distinction
> between the pronouns "he" and "she" (as if we used "it" in every case),
> and speculates on whether this would lead to less sexism in writing.

I can name several (Asian) Indian languages -- among them Bengali, my
mother tongue -- which have only one third person pronoun, roughly
equivalent to "it".

This may or may not lead to less sexism in *writing*, it certainly
doesn't change the fact that these societies are extremely sexist.
This makes me feel that the whole "Sexism in Language" debate is
pretty meaningless (yes, Sapir-Whorf notwithstanding).
---
Saumya Debray
University of Arizona, Tucson

  debray@arizona.edu
  {allegra, cmcl2, ihnp4}!arizona!debray