Campaign for the revival of thou!

[Hegel]

I am quite seriously attempting to revive the middle english pronoun thou. After all it is quite usefull. It allows you to quite specifically refer to a single person in the second person, instead of the plural you. It fell out of use as it came to become a derogatory term.

The forms are:
thou when the subject (similar to he)
thee as the object (similar to him)
thy as the possesive (similar to his) in front of a consonant
thine as the possesive (again similar to his) in front of a vowel

Well? What do thee think? Do thou think that this revival is worth it? Not?

[Sundog]

Originally posted by Hegel
Do thou think that this revival is worth it? Not?

"Dost thou." :D

[ceptimus]

Thy doesn't know what thas talkin abowt. Folk roun these parts still spake like that anyroad. Thy cosn't bring back wot's not gone in't first place.

[ceptimus]

Originally posted by Sundog


"Dost thou." :D I thought, "Doest thou?"

[Mercutio]

Look at my username, thou clod--I never stopped using them!:p

[The Mad Linguist]

Th'art fighting a losing battle ere, sithee.

[Lord Emsworth]

Darf ich ihnen das 'Du' anbieten?

[BillyTK]

Originally posted by ceptimus
Thy doesn't know what thas talkin abowt. Folk roun these parts still spake like that anyroad. Thy cosn't bring back wot's not gone in't first place.

Tha's bloody not wrong theer me awld cock sparrer!

[Soapy Sam]

Is that an alum, coal,iron ore, lead, tin, zinc, copper or fluorspar mine?
And what's tha daein in't, thee?

[BillyTK]

Cowus it's a bloody coal mine, thi daft ap'orth! ;) :D

It's a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reference.

[DrMatt]

I'd like to put in a pitch for ASL, which has nominative, genitive, or reflexive; singular and plural; but neither formal/informal nor gender on its pronouns. Gender is retained on "boy", "girl", "brother", "sister", "mother", and "father", and occasionally in places where a foreign word (e.g. a word of English like "hers") is being translated word-by-word rather than context-by-context.

Alas, there is no standard writing system for ASL, so its natives mostly use broken English in e-mail.

[ceptimus]

I also like the scottish 'yon' (as in yonder) which I understand to indicate distance.

So a scot could stand on a hill, with two other hills in sight, one near, one far, and refer to this hill, that hill and yon hill and, if we knew the code, we would know which hill he was talking about, without him having to point.

Just surfed to find evidence for the above, and discovered that there are four different demonstratives - so speaking about groups of boys a scot could refer to them as (at increasing distance):

thir lads, thae lads, thon lads, yon lads.

Here's the site where I found that. (http://www.electricscotland.com/tourist/sh_gram.htm)

[lofgoernost]

I also like the scottish 'yon' (as in yonder) which I understand to indicate distance.

cpetimus

Tony Curtis-speak:

Yonder lies da kingdom of me fader.

[Rat]

Originally posted by Lord Emsworth
Darf ich ihnen das 'Du' anbieten?
Doch ja!

[DrMatt]

Prithee how doest Thou propose to revive me, and when?

[NoZed Avenger]

No need. We've got it covered with "you" and "y'all" now.

We just need to get y'all educated on the proper pronunciation and usage.

N/A

[JAR]

Originally posted by ceptimus
Thy doesn't know what thas talkin abowt. Folk roun these parts still spake like that anyroad. Thy cosn't bring back wot's not gone in't first place.
What dialect of English are you speaking?

My guess is Yorkshire. It kind of sounds similar to the English of the people in "The Secret Garden."

[azidhak]

I'm holier than thou!:p

[Leif Roar]

Originally posted by NoZed Avenger
No need. We've got it covered with "you" and "y'all" now.

We just need to get y'all educated on the proper pronunciation and usage.

N/A

Don't you mean "y'all" and "all y'all"? *ducks*

Anyway, I used to frequent some fantasy roleplay channels on Irc and, in my experience, most people are simply not able to use thou correctly. Now, a revival of "whence" and "whither" in comman usage, that I might support.

[Charlie in Dayton]

Originally posted by Hegel
I am quite seriously attempting to revive the middle english pronoun thou. After all it is quite usefull. It allows you to quite specifically refer to a single person in the second person, instead of the plural you. It fell out of use as it came to become a derogatory term.

The forms are:
thou when the subject (similar to he)
thee as the object (similar to him)
thy as the possesive (similar to his) in front of a consonant
thine as the possesive (again similar to his) in front of a vowel

Well? What do thee think? Do thou think that this revival is worth it? Not?

F*ck thou.

[Rat]

F**k thee, I think you mean. I see people can indeed not use it correctly.

I do myself still use whence, thence, and hence. It's not that rare, but it's becoming rare to hear them used properly. I think people would look at me a bit funny if I said whither, hither, or thither. People already find it pretentious if I use whom, though why the disdain for the who/whom distinction, but not the he/him one, I don't know.

Of course we cannot, in English, differentiate between different levels of 'we' or 'us' as they can in come languages, such as 'yumi' and 'mipela' in the fantastic tok-pisin of PNG.

Cheers,
Rat.

[kittynh]

What are you, a Quaker?

[Charlie in Dayton]

Originally posted by ratcomp1974
F**k thee, I think you mean. I see people can indeed not use it correctly...
Cheers,Rat.

...and the horse thou rode in on...

[Leif Roar]

Originally posted by Charlie in Dayton


...and the horse thou rode in on...

...Being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow thy head clean off, thou hast got to ask theeself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, doest thee, punk?

[Some Friggin Guy]

Go and commiteth the act of intercourse with thine self.

[BillyTK]

Originally posted by Leif Roar


...Being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow thy head clean off, thou hast got to ask theeself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, doest thee, punk?

In tyke:

Si this .44 Magnum, reet, as being t'powerfullest 'andgun int world, an' would tek thi 'ed clean off thi shoulders like, thi's gotta ask thi'sen a question: dust a feel lucky? Well, dust tha, thi great steamin' pile o' wazzock droppings?

:D

[tim]

Bloody 'ell, he opened a reet can 'o worms, din't ee?

[Prospero]

So, would anyone consider it odd that I find myself encountering the word, and its various forms, somewhat frequently in conversation? I'll admit, my friends are particularly fond of word games and linguistic manipulation, but I thought it was at least somewhat commonplace if for no other reason than jesting.

[DrMatt]

But I am quite alive already, and under ordinary circumstances I only accept mouth-to-mouth from ladies...