>>257

Want one more example of a singular "they" being good? >The gender of Death Note's author, Tsugumi Ohba isn't known.
You would have to say "it was them who write Death Note" if you wanted to be correct.

I'd just say he, the author, whose gender is unknown.
The sole reason why this is perceived as "wrong" is that gender has become a massive deal, and using a masculine pronoun neutrally now offends people like you actually assumed one's gender. No, I am just using he neutrally. If someone prefers using she, he might use she. Or she might use he. Personally I think the information of whether the author is singular or plural matters more - when it comes to the particle I am using - than the gender. Language is filled with ambivalences and ambiguity that, as I mentioned before, people know how to filter out.

That said we live in this society which is changing. If I were really forced to come up with a neutral pronoun, as much as I hate how it sounds, I would rather have an entirely new thing like Stallman's per, pers, or even xe (ze?). I don't know which but I think it should be easy to articulate (that's why pronouns in Western languages often start with vowels, fricatives, etc.)
I can't recall similar large-scale changes to language happening artificially outside of 1984, but considering that's our handbook for the future I don't see why not.