Thou (personal pronoun)

Variations

When thou was still usually used, the variations of the personal pronouns were the following ones:

Conjugation

Present and spent of the code

In a way similar to the German , the termination of a verb conjugated by thou is generally - St or - is at the present and with spent from the Indicatif. These forms apply as well to the strong verbs as with the weak verbs.

The E intermediate is optional, which leaves a certain freedom in the poetic works , where one can decide to put it or not to adapt the length of worms.

to know (English modern: to know ) — present: thou knowest ; passed: thou knewest ;
to lead ( to drive ) — thou drivest ; thou drovest ;
to manufacture ( to make ) — thou makest ; thou madest ;
to like ( to coils ) — thou lovest ; thou lovedest .

Certain verbs have however an irregular conjugation with thou :

to be ( to Be ) — thou art (or thou beest ); thou wast (or thou wert , thou were );
to have ( to cuts ) — thou hast ; thou hadst ;
to make ( to C ) — thou dost (pronounce, or thou doest ); thou didst ;

The future presents to him also a particular termination:

shall : thou shalt ;
will : thou wilt .

The terminations of the verbs at the second and third nobody of the singular derive from the marks resulting from the Indo-European “S” and “T”. The resemblance on this point between the conjuguaisons English and German E, just as with the languages frisien born, is thus due to their common origin: they all are classified in the west-Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages

Subjunctive and requirement

In the modes subjunctive and requirement, the termination - (E) St abandoned, except notable for thou wert (subjunctive passed from the verb being: that you were). Many subjunctives of this form appear after the word yew , which in the modern use is followed of one verb to the Indicatif.

Yew thou Be Johan, I Tel. it the ryght with has good aduyce… ; ,

Be Thou my vision, O Lord off my heart… ,

I C wish thou wert has dog, that I might coils thee something… ,

Certain late authors use thou be' St or thou best as a subjunctive, but it is contrary with means-English use:

Yew thou be' St born to strange sights… (John Gives);

If thou best has miller… thou art doubly has thief. (Sir Walter Scott).

Comparisons

One can bring closer the conjugation to thou to that of the equivalent pronoun in close languages:

History and etymology

Etymology

Thou comes from the former English þú or þū , that one brings back to his proto-indo-European root * you .

Thou thus has the same origin as the words Icelandic and Vieux norrois þú , the Latin you — thus that the French, the Portuguese, the Catalan , the Italian you — as well as the Irish and the Lithuanian you .

In the same way, the Lithuanian , the Spanish and the Rumanian you or tú , the German , the Norwegian , the Swedish and the Danish of the , the Greek σύ ( known ), the Serb Ti, the Russian ты ( ty ), the Slovak ty , the Slovenien Ti , the Armenian դու ( dow ), the Hindi , the Persian تُو ( to ) and the Sanskrit tvam are same origin.

Origin

At the beginning, thou was the singular equivalent of the plural pronoun ye , derived from a root proto Indo-European.

In Middle English, thou was sometimes shortened while placing small “U” above the letter thorn.

Gradually, thou was used to express the intimacy, familiarity or even disrespect — whereas another pronoun, you , form oblique of ye , was used for the formal situations.

Disappearance

In Old English, thou followed a relatively simple rule: thou was addressed to a person and ye with several. After the conquest Norman, which marked the beginning of the influence of the French characteristic of the Middle English, thou was gradually replaced by plural ye to address itself to a superior, then of equal footing. However, the form thou remained a long time common to be addressed to a subordinate.

Association singular-plural with a polished or familiar speech, called Distinction TV, comes for English from the French influence. It is indeed of use in French of asresser with the kings and the aristocrats with the second nobody of plural “you”. This practice spread with any speech intended for a superior or a foreigner.

At the 18th century, Samuel Johnson, in has Grammar off the English Tongue , wrote:

“… in the language off ceremony… the plural second person is used for the second person singular… ”

He implies here that the singular was still of daily use. On the other hand, the Merriam Webster Dictionary off English Usage claims that the majority of the speakers of English of the south had forsaken thou , even within the family, as of 1650. Thou survived in certain religious, literary and regional contexts.

Uses in the language

Use as a verb

There exists in English the verb to thou , meaning “to address as tu”. It is not any more used in modern English, but appears in the literature and the report/ratio of time, as in the report of the lawsuit of Sir Walter Raleigh in 1603, when Sir Edward Coke, prosecutor for the Crown, would have allegedly tried to insult Raleigh while saying:

I thou thee, thou traitor!

what one can translate by “I address as tu you, treacherous! ”. A formerly famous refrain with the Yorkshire, which one used to position back the too familiar children, exploited this ambiguity:

Don' T thee tha them ace thas thee! ,

The verb to thou is combined regularly:

present: thou / thous ;
takes part present: thouing ;
preterit : thoued ;

takes part last: thoued .

Modern use

Although thou fell in disuse, there remains employed in particular in the traditional and ritual contexts, giving a solemn character to the speech. Thou also remains, in sometimes faded forms, in regional English dialects of England and Scotland.

In English modern, however, thou is used more only in set phrases, like

fare thee well : good-bye (otherwise written farewell )

like in the religious texts.

The disappearance of the distinction plural singular/in English was in a certain way compensated by the appearance of neologisms and particular dialectal forms. In American English for example, one finds alternatives according to the areas: y' all , youse , you guys …

Religious uses

When William Tyndale translated the Bible into English, at the beginning of the 16th century, it tried to preserve the distinction between singular and plural which the Hebrew posts and the Greek of origin.

It employed for this purpose thou for the singular, and ye for plural, independently of the relations between the speaker and the listener. By doing this, it gave to thou a solemn air which slices with its French equivalent. This turning was included in the edition of the Bible of the king Jacques, and entered the use by this translation.,

The edition Standard Revised Version of the corpus, going back to 1946, retained the pronoun thou in the only context of a divine report/ratio, you being used everywhere else. That was done in order to preserve a tone of reverence particular, familiar with the readers. The edition New American Standard Bible (1971) made the same decision, but the revision of 1995, New American Standard Bible, Updated edition turned over to the preceding use. The edition New Revised Standard Version (1989) did not use at all the pronoun thou considering it incongruous and contrary for origin, which was to use thou to distinguish the addresses with the divinity. In this context, thou is written Thou .

The Quaker S used formerly thee as an ordinary pronoun, a stereotype running making them use thee as well with personal as with the accusative. This practice was introduced by George Fox at the beginnings of the movement, with like drank posted the conservation of a levelling familiarity, the lime pit speaking . The majority of the Quakers gave up this use since. At its beginnings, the movement Quaker was particularly important in the zones of the North-West of the England, in particular in the North the Midlands. The conservation of thee in the language used by the Quakers east can be related to that.

More recently, the Austrian philosopher Martin Buber was translated into English by the words I and Thou (original German title: Ich und Of the ) in order to support on the report/ratio familiar, intimate, with the divinity.

The Ten Commands are traditionally recited with the thou to address itself to the faithful one.

Use in the literature

Works of Shakespeare

William Shakespeare often used thou in an intimate context, with the direction where you is employed in French, but did not limit itself to it: the lovers and friends were called ye or you as often as thou . In Henri IV , Shakespeare makes use the two forms with its character of Falstaff, when he addresses himself to the Prince Henry — heir to the throne and his superior — in the same line of text. One can interpret that like a recall of the statute of Henry, at the same time drink prince and partner for Falstaff.

Prince — Thou art so conceited person-witted with drinking off old sack, and unbuttoning thee super after, and sleeping upon benches after noon, that thou hast forgotten to demand that truly which thou wouldest truly know. Does What have devil hast thou to C with the time off the day? …

Falstaff — Indeed, you like near me now, Hall… And, I prithee, sweet wag, when thou art has king, ace God save thy Grace – Majesty, I should say; for grace thou wilt cuts nun –

Contemporary literature

Although disappeared from the common use in the oral language, the use of thou can still be observed — sometimes intentionally — in a sporadic way in the contemporary literature.

Certain authors and translators, taking as a starting point the religious uses, use this form of Wikt: emphase to address to natural or supernatural beings in a laudatory register : divinities (in the last republications of the religious texts in English language), a lark, the hero Achilles or the character of cartoon Thor.

In an episode of the saga Star Wars, Empire against attack , the character of Dark Vador request with the Emperor:

“What is thy bidding, master? ”

These recent uses of the pronoun are well far from familiarity or of the condescending tone which in the beginning the pronoun had, but are inspired directly by the divine apostrophes evoked previously.

The modern authors, who for some are not accustomed to the use of the pronoun thou , make sometimes errors by employing it. The Solécisme S are among most current — through the incorrect use of the conjugations. In particular, systematic use of the variation - eth with thou , like thou thinketh . One observes sometimes the contamination with the conjugation of other people, like the third nobody of the singular “So sayest Thor! ” with the variation - is second…

These errors were often parodied by anglophone humorists.

Certain translators gave an account of the distinction TV in English with thou and you , but this practice is less and less followed. Ernest Hemingway, in its novel For which rings the knell , uses thou and you to reflect the relations between the Spanish-speaking characters.

In their album Gods off War , the group Manowar uses ye and thee :

“ Take thy shield, take thy sword, all thy let us weapons to the sky/Ye shall need them, when Odin bid thee small channel… ”

Regional alternatives and uses

The pronoun you is from now on the only one to express the second anybody in the official language, at the same time in the singular and. In certain regional speeches however, thou survived, in a form or another. Elsewhere, its absence led to the introduction of new turnings making it possible to distinguish singular and plural. These alternatives are particular with the various areas of the anglophone world.

The United Kingdom

Maintenance of the second nobody of the singular

In modern English, the Distinction TV based on thou still exists in the traditional dialects of Cumbrie, Durham, of north, the west and part of the south of the Yorkshire, the West the Midlands, and England of South-west.

Such dialects preserve generally also the associated conjugations: for example thee coost (in modern English you could , in average English: thou couldest , i.e. “you could”) in the north of the Staffordshire. Through rural Yorkshire, the old distinction between Personal and Objectif is also preserved. The pronoun Possessif often is written thy and is pronounced tha , whereas the possessive form of tha followed the general use to become yours or your' N (contraction of your one ).

There is the following table:

Thoo is also used in the old dialect orcadien of the Scottish , instead of the pronoun thou considered familiar. One finds, in the various dialects Scot, the following forms: ʒe , ʒow , thowe , thoue and thous .

Neologisms concerning the second nobody of plural

In the English dialects spoken in Northern Ireland, yous or yousuns frequently replace personal and accusative plural, whereas your or yousuns marks the possessive one.

Cuts yousuns heard the racket your dog is making?! (very familiar language)

Cuts yous heard the racket yousuns' dog is making?! (very familiar)

Cuts youse heard the racket your dog is making?! (language running)

Cuts you heard the racket your dog is making?! (constant language or current)

The case is similar in Scotland, where youse (generally written thus) is used in the familiar language.

In most of the provinces of the Ireland, ye or yez is used as personal and the accusative of the second nobody of plural, yeer being used like possessive. With Dublin, youse is used like personal and accusative.

The United States

In the south of the the United States of America, y' all (contraction of you all , “you all”) is a current form of the second nobody of plural. In Pennsylvania, you' ones or yinz is sometimes used in the area of Pittsburgh. In north, yous , youse , or you guys is sometimes employed, in particular around New York, the south of Michigan — though one prefers to use youse guys/youse guys' S like objective and possessive forms.

These turnings are perhaps inspired by the English terms quoted in the preceding parts. You guys (which one can translate by “the guy”) is very much used in all the anglophone North America to indicate plural, as well male as female. These expressions however are regarded as very vulgar and remain absent from written documents. In the following table, one indexes the pronouns of the second nobody in their most common form, with particular regional turnings between brackets:

See too

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