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Dennis Baron

@drgrammar.bsky.social
552 followers 142 following 644 posts

I write about language and … language and law (free speech and regulation); gender (pronouns!); tech (how tech affects readers and writers); language reform; and language policing. All from a historical perspective.

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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 11h
Pronouns 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.
With all the brains which we have, it seems strange that our language should continue to limp along for want of a third person singular pronoun to express common gender.
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
found 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.
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Pronouns 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.
Detroit News recounts Peoria Transcript support for E, es, and em
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The university is always looking out for us.
University email notifying employees that they must report to the safety and compliance office if they experience fatality
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Pronouns 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.
Headline: Pronoun invented by John W. Taylor. Worcester Telegram, August 6, 1917, p. 8.E. P. Jots announces his coinage of hier. Baltimore Sun, Feb. 12, 1910, p. 5.
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Pronouns 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?
Claims ain't has been eradicated and calls for professors to create a new common gender pronoun
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Posted without comment.
Far right agitator's boat for policing migrants in the English Channel accidentally sinks.
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
US Secretary of Education McMahon wants more civics in classrooms, with students pledging allegiance to a flag with 15 stripes and roughly 60 stars.
US Department of Education facebook post showing a class of children reciting the pledge.
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
1939 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.
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
What language to campaign in becomes an issue in UK byelections www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...
theguardian.com
Khan addresses Polanski in Urdu at London assembly, mocking Green leader’s byelection video – UK politics live
It comes after the Green leader, who is standing as a candidate in the Holborn and St Pancras byelection, recorded a campaign video in Urdu
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Found this tucked away on a high shelf in the linen closet. Could use a touch up with the iron.
Peter Max love image on an old pillow case
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Another 🐝 reject and it's not even British.
New York Times spelling bee says pwned is not in its word listMerriam-Webster definition of pwn and pwned.
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
New technology always gives us new ways to fake it.
Headline in the Times: A lecturer replaced himself with an AI avatar. No one noticed.
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
The foldable iPhone 6s
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
so sorry
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Sometimes 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.
An ad for Liberty Cabbage in a Pennsylvania newspaper from 1918
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
I'll settle for viva and vita.
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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 €.
A message in French to me about a book I didn't write, ending with an offer to help me publicize it, for $, or perhaps €.
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Moon shot
Lunar eclipse, close to maximum, about 11:10 CDT.
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Back to school, or la rentrée
Shakespeare takes young Hamnet shopping for school supplies.
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
I have a complaint, 🐝 ...
New York Times Spelling Bee says peever is not in its word list
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
More 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.
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Pronouns 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.]
Report of attempt to add the common gender pronoun idn to the language of the state of Missouri
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Simon and Schuster rewrite the Surgeon General's warning.
Ad for Jason Arday book with warning "Avoid publishing scams. Learn more."
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
simple plural? AI a collective noun? The government were? The AI were?
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
used golf carts waiting to be taken wherever used golf carts go
used golf carts waiting to be loaded on a truck to be taken wherever used golf carts go
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Guardian spoiler
Guardian puzzle clue "Teacher of no practical use." 8 letters. Answer: academic.
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Shouldn't he just build a wall and make Canada pay for it?
Headline: Trump wants to impose tariffs on Canada in retaliation for wildfire smoke.
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
wordle: in three today. why is everyone so upset? i mean the bee 🐝 denied me boffin and nobble. now that is upsetting.
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
watch this space...
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
In 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.edu
In Québec, no noshing allowed.
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
View from LACMA
landscape with palms and distant hills
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
Bah, si... (@lacma)
Magritte painting of a pipe, captioned Ceci n'est pas une pipe.
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Bullokar called the last letter "zee" in 1580. Just sayin'
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
We had the Knish Nosh in Queens, where we would stop on the way home from high school. 65 years later it's still there.
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
on ne nosh pas!
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Office québécois de la langue française. Photo by the author.
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
montreal.citynews.ca/2026/06/11/q...
montreal.citynews.ca
Quebec 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...
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Vraiment?
Quebec language watchdog targets Montreal brunch restaurant over word ‘nosh'
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
A day at La Brea
The pitA dragonfly at the pitA former resident of the pit
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
L. A. at 5:30 am.
view of palm tree outside window
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
L.A., city of contrasts.
Spirit of LA statue at the Grove
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
The Deux Chevaux comes with everything you see here. Batteries not included.
The 2CV may return as an electric car.
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
a lovely place-- you took us there when it had more of a gourmet menu.
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Pham: 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.edu
Pham: A century-old nonbinary pronoun you never heard of
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
You're telling me!
Screenshot -- AI Overview.  Oops, something went wrong.
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
Pronouns 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.
Article proposing pham and phem as common gender pronouns.
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
i got one like that. turned it into a blog post: blogs.illinois.edu/view/25
blogs.illinois.edu
AI Me
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
i got one of those from shryn as well. turned into a blog post: blogs.illinois.edu/view/25
blogs.illinois.edu
AI Me
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Dennis Baron @drgrammar.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
i vacuumed the downstairs.
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