Roger--
Thanks for the long provenance on the use of "their." I find it both illuminating and useful.
My reason for favoring the use of "their" for the singular ambiguous third person is the same reason I favor using "alright" as one word (though this sends folk weaned on Strunk and White into apoplexy as well): Clarity.
"Their" is definitely ambiguous as to sex, whereas "his" is ambiguously ambiguous. Write the sentence:
The teacher said, "Each student should bring his paper to the front of the class."
The implication is that this might be an all boys school. Certainly it's not an all girls school, as would be indicated by "her," or a coed class, as would be clearly indicated by "their."
Same way, read the sentence:
We were all right on our way home.
Does that mean "We were okay on our way home" or "We were collectively directly on our way home"? If you allow the construction "alright" as a synonym for "okay," your meaning will be clear, at least in the first sense.
Besides which, the construction follows the same logic as "altogether" and similar words.
Kevin
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