• Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    Yeah I don’t see anyone accepting being called “it” in English; that’s how you refer to farm animals bound for slaughter or undesirable ethnicities you’re going to exterminate.

    • Dasus@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Why would anyone ever want to try using “it” for people in English unless they’re purposefully trying to demean someone… ?

      Sorry, I wasn’t trying to say that’s what English should do. I was describing what Finnish does.

      I’m pointing out that lots of languages have less gender distinctions than English, so English calling French out on gendered nouns is rather silly.

      My point is that despite Finland having a perfectly good third person singular for people, we usually use the even more general one, which is just for anything. Except when talking to and about pets, because then somehow everyone uses less colloquial language.

      While English has a perfectly good second person singular, but doesn’t even use it anymore.

      You can’t have more third person singulars before you finish your second person singulars, that’s the rule. Now open up!

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thou