Re: Epicene pronoun in english?:USA

> From:    "John L. Leland" <Lelandconlang@...>
> I have seen it said that the change from United States are to
> United States is took place around the Civil War, and signaled
> the change in concepts from the U.S. as a loose federation of
> states to the U.S. as an essentially unitary government. I
> believe one of the pundits of the Civil War TV series said this,
> but I do not know the underlying research.
You're thinking of Shelby Foote, and he didn't quite say that.
He said (to paraphrase):  Before the Civil War, people said "the
United States are", and afterwards "the United States is":  it
made us an "is".  Given that Foote is a "Southron" as historians
of the Civil War go, it's unlikely he would have suggested that
Americans then or now view themselves as having a unitary government.

(This might be true in certain of the more deracinated Northern
conurbations, but certainly in the South and to a lesser extent in
the West identity is still largely defined along state and then
regional lines.)

 =========================================================================
Thomas Wier	       "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics    because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago   half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street     Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637