From Booksmart Studios, this is Lexicon Valley, a podcast about language.
I'm John McWhorter, and today we're going to do a short, sweet show about pronouns.
And you know why we're going to do pronouns?
Because I have to say here, I'm obliged to say here,
despite the fact that it's not my style, that I have a new book out.
And it's called Pronoun Trouble, the story of us in seven little words.
And what it's about is not just they, them.
You know, if anybody's written a book only about that, then I'm kind of sorry for them.
It's about all.
pronouns.
And of course, they, them is one part of it.
For those of you who have listened to Lexicon Valley for a while,
you might imagine that what really grabs me is how different the pronouns were in the deep past.
So I just want to give you a little sense of that
because they should be gathered into one episode of this show,
whether there is a beautiful purple little stocking stuffer of a book or not.
And so...
Just a few examples of how different English would have been.
It's interesting.
There are stories, especially older ones, where you go back into oldie England,