Re: OT: Latin subject-verb agreement

In a message dated 12/13/2007 6:37:23 PM Central Standard Time,
MorphemeAddict@WMCONNECT.COM writes:


> In a message dated 12/13/2007 4:37:29 PM Central Standard Time,
> rfmilly@MSN.COM writes:
>
>
> > I've mentioned before, Marge Piercy's proposed "per" (< person) as a
> > gender-neutral future-English subsitute (the possessive is pers IIRC) in
> her
> > WONDERFUL novel "Woman on [(at?] the Edge of Time"-- though I guess her
> > readership was so small that it never had a chance.....
> >
>
> I *have* that book!  I guess I should finish it.
>
> stevo
>

The book is "Woman on the edge of time" by Marge Piercy.
She uses "person" as the future English 3rd person singular subject pronoun,
while the object and possessive forms are both "per".  The word "person" is
used in its usual English sense as well, but then it takes a determiner (article
or demonstrative pronoun), so there is no confusion.
One of the characters (Lucente) comments near the beginning of the book that
future English still has no distinction between singular you and plural you.

stevo   </HTML>