Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 11hPronouns in the news, 1930 edition: The Concord (North Carolina) Daily Tribune calls for the creation of a common gender pronoun (Mar. 14, p. 8), although by this time perhaps 150 such pronouns had been proposed. 020
Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 26/09/2026found two yesterday in my spam that use the spelling "litterary" and i've also gotten a couple sent to my email but addressing a different writer and describing a book written i assume by that writer. which suggests that ai makes just as many mistakes as i do. 010
Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Pronouns in the news, 1878 edition: The Detroit News (Nov. 12, 1878) cites Peoria Transcript support for E, es, and em. "The illiterate will say 'they.' But nothing can be more absurd unless it be the word 'he.'" E, es, and em, the oldest nonbinary pronouns I've found so far, were coined in 1841. 155
Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Pronouns in the news, 1917 edition: The Worcester (MA) Telegram reports that local resident John W. Taylor invented "hier. . . made up of the dominant letters in he or she, his or her, and him or her." 7 years earlier, E. P. Jots, of New Decatur, AL, also invented hier. 020
Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Pronouns in the news, 1937 edition: The Kentucky New Era claims that teachers eradicated ain't, a word the paper associates with American independence. The writer wants a common gender (=gender neutral) pronoun that would be useful for referring to women's hats in a theatre. Ain't pronouns grand? 000
Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 18/09/2026US Secretary of Education McMahon wants more civics in classrooms, with students pledging allegiance to a flag with 15 stripes and roughly 60 stars. 060
Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 17/09/20261939 best pic nominee suggests it's not a cult film. lost to GWTW. other nominees include Mr Smith Goes to Washington, Stagecoach, Goodbye Mr Chips and Dark Victory and more. It was some year for flics. 010
Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 17/09/2026What language to campaign in becomes an issue in UK byelections www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...theguardian.comKhan addresses Polanski in Urdu at London assembly, mocking Green leader’s byelection video – UK politics liveIt comes after the Green leader, who is standing as a candidate in the Holborn and St Pancras byelection, recorded a campaign video in Urdu 000
Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Found this tucked away on a high shelf in the linen closet. Could use a touch up with the iron. 000
Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 15/09/2026New technology always gives us new ways to fake it. 010
Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 29/08/2026Sometimes patriotic re-naming can go too far... an ad for Liberty Cabbage, "formerly Sauer Kraut." The Plain Speaker (Hazleton, Pennsylvania), September 7, 1918, p. 5. 160
Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 28/08/2026 Presented for your amusement, a new version of the author spam/scam, or should I say auteur, sent to me though I didn't write the book, addressing me by not-my-name, en français, and ending, eventually, in an offer to publicize it for me, for $, or perhaps €. 011
Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 19/08/2026More than 100 years later Missouri considered a bill forbidding teachers from using a student’s unauthorized gender pronoun. Anyone guilty of violating that law would be fired for “incompetence, immorality, or neglect of duty.” Both initiatives failed. 020
Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 19/08/2026Pronouns in Missouri, then and now. At its 1922 constitutional convention, Missouri considered adding the nonbinary pronoun idn "into the language of the state." [Image from Montgomery Standard, Nov. 10, 1922.] 130
Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 08/08/2026Simon and Schuster rewrite the Surgeon General's warning. 010
Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 26/07/2026simple plural? AI a collective noun? The government were? The AI were? 010
Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 21/07/2026used golf carts waiting to be taken wherever used golf carts go 000
Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 18/07/2026Shouldn't he just build a wall and make Canada pay for it? 000
Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 15/07/2026wordle: in three today. why is everyone so upset? i mean the bee 🐝 denied me boffin and nobble. now that is upsetting. 010
Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 16/06/2026In Québec, no noshing allowed. Read all about it in a new post on the Web of Language: blogs.illinois.edu/view/25/3194...blogs.illinois.eduIn Québec, no noshing allowed. 000
Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 11/06/2026Bullokar called the last letter "zee" in 1580. Just sayin' 050
Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 11/06/2026We had the Knish Nosh in Queens, where we would stop on the way home from high school. 65 years later it's still there. 010
Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 11/06/2026montreal.citynews.ca/2026/06/11/q...montreal.citynews.caQuebec language watchdog targets Montreal brunch restaurant over word ‘nosh’A popular brunch spot serving Jewish food in Montreal’s Saint-Henri neighbourhood is the latest target of Quebec’s language watchdog. Arthurs Nosh Bar received a complaint from the Office québécois de... 000
Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 26/05/2026The Deux Chevaux comes with everything you see here. Batteries not included. 011
Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 25/05/2026a lovely place-- you took us there when it had more of a gourmet menu. 000
Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 19/05/2026Pham: A century-old nonbinary pronoun you never heard of -- a new post on the Web of Language. blogs.illinois.edu/view/25/1359...blogs.illinois.eduPham: A century-old nonbinary pronoun you never heard of 010
Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 15/05/2026Pronouns in the news, 1918 edition: S. D Smith, of Davenport IA, proposes pham and phem as pronouns for "either a man or a woman." Smith also offers some compounds: congresspham, phamhood, phamself. Illinois State Register, Mar. 22, 1918, p. 4. 081
Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 13/05/2026i got one like that. turned it into a blog post: blogs.illinois.edu/view/25blogs.illinois.eduAI Me 000
Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 13/05/2026i got one of those from shryn as well. turned into a blog post: blogs.illinois.edu/view/25blogs.illinois.eduAI Me 010