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  • From: Bearpecs AT aol.com
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: FW: [b-hebrew] Re:plurality & divinity
  • Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2005 11:30:59 EDT


In a message dated 6/22/2005 10:05:24 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
yodan AT yodanco.com writes:

I wonder if "you" in English used to have two different forms - a
singular and a plural - that became one.


"You" was originally plural, and "thou" ("thee" in objective case) was
singular, corresponding to German "du".
As in German ("Sie") and French ("vous"), "you" was used not only as plural
but as the formal singular. "Thou" was used in informal context, with
friends, etc. But it was also used in intimate context, with family; and
for this
reason was also used to address Gd. It is because of this sense of intimacy
that the title of Martin Buber's book was translated "I and Thou" rather
than "I and You".

One sometimes sees "ye" in place of "you" and I am not familiar with the
history of that variant. (I've often seen it in old translations of the
plural
imperative: e.g. "praise ye the L-rd".) It is not to be confused, however,
with the word in archaizing usage like "Ye Olde Widget Shoppe", in which the
"y" in "ye" stands for an orthographic variant of the old letter "eth" which
normally looked like a curved small "d" with a line through the stem and
represented the "th" sound in "the".






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