The non-gender-specific singular use of
they has been around for five centuries. It was good enough for Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Austen, and so it's good enough for me. Not only is
you plural, but it's the oblique form of
ye. One might as well condone saying
me read book. Also,
they (as well as
she) is a borrowing from Norse. The original third person plural pronoun in Old English was
hie which was
him in the accusative. The pronoun stuck around in colloquial speech, though. When people say things like
that'll teach 'em. The apostrophe is probably also a mistake. Many moons ago, I wrote
this blog entry on it.
Language does not change because of laziness, foreignness, or youth. It changes because the people speaking and writing it use it in different ways so as to facilitate better communication.
