D users in Munich, Rome, Venice, or Frankfurt?

[Robert Fraser]

Georg Wrede wrote:
> Contrast this to "modern, politically correct American English", where 
> one says "she" of the programmer, and "they" of any third person. The 
> latter of which is not only semantically + grammatically incorrect, it 
> also makes sentences cumbersome, but foremost, diffuses and murks up the 
> original intent of the author.

ARRRGHHHH!!! Sorry, you triggered a "pet peeve".

"They" is correct when referring to an unknown (single) person (even if 
the gender is known, e.x. "someone left their jockstrap in the locker 
room" is more natural to most native speakers than "someone left his 
jockstrap in the locker room", although in this case I'd say either is 
acceptable).

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?cat=27
It's even in the bible: 
http://158.130.17.5/~myl/languagelog/archives/003572.html

It's been suggested that singular they has been in use since 1400 
(around the beginning of "modern English"), and likely in old/middle 
English as well. It's only been in the last few hundred years when 
people started analyzing how people talk and tried to figure out why 
people were using "they" in singular contexts. Someone decided to make 
it a "rule", and millions of people have been trying to force that 
"rule", despite using singular they themselves.