As interesting as they are, I don't know much about languages beyond my native one (Don't ask: I'll take offence :P). It strikes me that English is definitely missing a couple of things that would be really useful:
- A second person plural pronoun distinct from the singular, that is, a word for 'you people' to distinguish from 'you person'. French has it, if I recall correctly, pretty sure Latin does (although it doesn't use personal pronouns much), and I suspect most romantic languages do.
- A gender-neutral third person pronoun for use when the gender of the third party is unknown or unspecified. It's fairly easy to refer to an unknown (or hypothetical) person as 'they', but I gather that strictly one should use 'he or she' each time, which is just daft.
A couple of books I've ordered are on '4-6 weeks' availability. They have been since I ordered them on the 25th of June. One book out of that order made it to me in early September; the other two now have projected dates of between mid-October and late November.
I'm leaving the order intact, because I'm in no hurry, but I've had this problem before: they just don't know when to give up and tell you that actually they can't get hold of it.
I'm leaving the order intact, because I'm in no hurry, but I've had this problem before: they just don't know when to give up and tell you that actually they can't get hold of it.
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