Subject: disc he / she

dear linguist list subscribers , for the continuing discussion of the pronouns , i have some lines of data from the 17 manuscripts of the a - version of piers plowman . they can generally be said to be representative of 15th century usage . is it not strongly suggested in the lines that " proverbial he " , and perhaps the " original " morphology of the so called " generic-he " , was feminine , not masculine ? what a strange thing to say ! can this be accurate ? looking at the middle english pronouns , using the modern paradigm to evaluate them , is misleading and inconclusive . when the development of middle english " his " or " him " is evaluated without taking into consideration their development from old english morphology , much of the story is lost - - that these two " masculine " forms were also neuter , and in this later sense ( " not one or the other " ) , served well for the indefinite singular - - by way of development from the oe masculine / neuter obliques ; and the feminine forms were morphologically related to the plural . in the following lines , the h-stem subject is the feminine ( / plural ) , not the masculine . am i wrong ? ( playing for a moment the devil 's advocate ) do n't these lines below fly in the face of feminist theory as it sees the " he " " stealing cognitive space " , whereas in fact , they are feminine forms ? i would like to have some feminist theory input about these lines of evidence . if so-goes - the-language , so-goes - the-culture ( a la whorf ) , what can we make of the " hers " = 3d " theirs " identity found widespread in middle english morpholgy , and what can we say about the " proverbial he " in the following being feminine ? is there anybody strong in feminist theory , particulary a feminist him - / herself , who can discuss this in the general forum ? is my understanding correct that feminist history sees the h-stem feminine as having dropped from living english by 1300 ? please help . do not hesitate to contact me personally about any aspects of this , pro , con , or indifferent . lines from piers ( * = 3d unavailable character ) passus iii line 229 a = ch and he = feat gripeth gifts , so [ ? ] god helpe , d and ho so gripeth here gifts , so me god helpe , e = deai = feat grypi = fe such gifts , sa me god helpe , h but he = feat gripeth siche 3eftis , so me god helpe , h2 and he = feat grypes here gifts , so me god helpe , h3 = j and he = feat gripi = fe mede , so me god helpe , k and thay = feat grepyn her gifts , so me god helpe , l and ho = feat gripeth heore 3eftes , so me god helpe , m and 3e = feat grypit here 3iftis , so me god helpe , n and he = feat gripeth 3e gift , so me god helpe , r and he = feat grypyt 3oure gifts , so me god helpe , t and he = feat gripi = fe here gifts , so me god helpe , u and he = feat gripeth here gold , so me god helpe , v and heo = feat 3iftus heore gifts , so me god helpe , w he = feat gripeth here 3eftes , so me god helpe passus iii line 230 a schul ab * e it full bitterly or ellis = fee bok lyeth ch shal ab * e bitterly or = fee bok lie * th d shal ab * e it bitterly or = fee bok lyeth e sall ab * e it full bytter as = fee buke tellis h he schal abigge it bitterly or ellis = fee bok li * e = fe h2 shal ab * e it biterly or = fee bok lyeth h3 shal ab * e it bitterly or = fee bok li * e = fe j schulun abugge wel bitterly or = fee bok lyeth k schallen abigge hit wel bitterly or = fee bok lyeth l shal ab * e hit wel bytter or ellis = fee bok lyeth m scholyn abiggyn wol bytter or = fee bok liet n shal ab * e hit wel bitterly ar = fee bok lyeth r shal ab * e ful bitterly or = fee bok lyes t shal ab * ie it bitterly or = fee bok li * e = fe u shal ab * e ful bitere or = fee bok lyes v = deei schullen abugge bitterly or = fee bok li * e = fe w shal ab * e it bitterly or = fee bok ly
