Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Uri Hurwitz <uhurwitz AT yahoo.com>]

Peter kirk wrote, in part:
   
  
> ..."in English there is no politeness distinction in second person 
  pronouns, "...
   
  Wasn't there a clear social distinction between 'thou' and 'you' in the 
  past, a distinction clearly retained in current German between 'Du' 
  and 'Sie' ?
   
  Uri
   
   
  


 
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>From peter AT qaya.org  Tue Nov 14 12:40:10 2006
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Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2006 17:40:06 +0000
From: Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>
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Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] We and us
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On 14/11/2006 17:22, B. M. Rocine wrote:
> B-Haverim,
>
> Peter makes a good point.  In addition, we may take note of third person 
> being substituted for second in BH (and English?), as in 'adoni hammelek 
> substituting for 'attah.
>
>   
True. But in English this usage is very rare. Although we sometimes 
address people in the third person, e.g. "My Lord", it is very rare for 
third person forms to continue to be used. Of course the third person 
substituting for the first person is also rare nowadays, but in English 
not I think quite so rare.

-- 
Peter Kirk
E-mail:  peter AT qaya.org
Blog:    http://speakertruth.blogspot.com/
Website: http://www.qaya.org/