this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2024
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Someone correct me, but "you" was originally plural. The correct way to address a singular person is "thou".
Yesn't. Actually no.
The singular was thou for subject and thee for object and the plural was ye/you. In formal speech the plural was used and the subject pronoun was replaced by the object but I can't tell you in which order.
The þ-thing didn't effect the pronoun but some surnames and the article. I think some pubs have names like "ye old". They used to be "þe(=the) old" and have nothing to do with þe old pronoun, even tho it is written the same.
God rest ye merry gentleman is the "ye" example I like to think of.
Man Christmas dinner is gonna rock this year. Just like my mom will play dumb and look confused that I used "they" as a singular, I'm going to play dumb and look confused when she says "you". I see no downsides.
Other commenters have already covered the you/thou thing, so to cover the printing press bit: that did happen, but with a different word. "Ye" as in "Ye Olde Village Inn" is the one. The "ye" here is "the", and it was pronounced as "the" too. It would have been spelled "þe" before, and in blackletter style (𝔱𝔥𝔦𝔰 𝔰𝔱𝔶𝔩𝔢 𝔬𝔣 𝔩𝔢𝔱𝔱𝔢𝔯𝔦𝔫𝔤), "y" and "þ" looked awfully similar. If your press came from a country that didn't use the thorn - and many presses in Europe did - and therefore didn't have that character available, then you'd just use the y since they were close enough anyway
A similar thing happened with the letter yogh (ȝ) in Scotland. It wasn't in most presses, but it looks close enough to a z, so just use a z, and now the name "Menzies" is spelled that way despite being pronounced "ming-iss"
That this "ye" is spelled the same way as the second person plural subject pronoun "ye" is a total coincidence
Wait, was ‘Ye Olde …’ really still pronounced ‘The old’? Holy crap, why did nobody ever correct how stupid I am. I thought people just said things funny back then. Sigh
Stop. You are making some of the senseless things in English make sense. How I’m I supposed to feel superior because my first language is read the way it is written? 😩
That's the annoying part of English. How we got here is perfectly logical for the most part, and that does absolutely nothing to make any of it make sense.
Thou was singular subject and thee was singular object.
https://activeenglishcee.blogspot.com/2020/10/thou-thee-thy-thine-ye-meanings-usage.html
pou
Thou are correct.
*art
It was a funny comment, but I wouldn't call it art.
*are
Trolling is a art
Okay, if you say so.
Art are correct.
Also singular they is older than singular you. So any idiots who complain that "they" should only be plural should only be using thou/thee for second person singular.
We use ты for second person singular.
Yeah. And
Y'allalso used to be plural. Now it can be singular and we useAll Y'allto clarify when we need people to know we mean plural. Language is bonkers.I have never heard y'all used singular, growing up in the American South. Instead, as I understand it:
Y'all: You all, referring to a group of people (Can potentially be a subset of a larger group, e.g. talking to one couple at the table among a group of friends). "When are y'all having the wedding again?"
All y'all: shorthand for "all of y'all" Explicitly referring to "all of the members of the group in question", requiring that at least one member of said group is being addressed by the speaker. The difference is there are no exceptions (apart from exaggeration) "Ain't a single one of you innocent, all y'all had a hand in this" or "All y'all need to put on your seatbelts, I ain't going to jail for any of y'all's comfort".