Connglish
From: | Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...> |
Date: | Saturday, November 18, 2006, 21:07 |
No, not "con-glish", but "Connor-glish". My son, who is rapidly
approaching the advanced age of 3, now speaks something that is a
fairly good approximation of English. But one of the most noticeable
departure is in the third-person singular pronouns.
First, all forms are epicene. This is true even though has no trouble
distinguishing the sexes, and readily tells me whether someone is a
"boy" or a "girl" (which categories apply to any age), but the
pronouns are the same for both.
Second, the particular words are strange:
nominative: her
possessive: hers
oblique: him
Example: No, don't give him it! Her don't want hers bottle!
One might almost suspect my wife of supplying a matriarchal bias. :)
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