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  • From: David Kummerow <farmerjoeblo AT hotmail.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] We and us
  • Date: Fri, 17 Nov 2006 09:50:31 +1100

Hi Peter,

Sorry I misunderstood you, but you did say "given the decline in use of the polite form of 'you' in many European languages". I happened to include English amongst these "many European languages" inadvertently, and used it as an example, while you close to use French and German as your examples. In any case, Helmbrecht discusses both French and German in much detail, German being his native language. Probably such a change is predictable, given that, if you are correct here, "vous" and "Sie" are dying in usage, unlike English "you" which was overused. I would need to do some more reading on that, but I don't really have time at the moment. You could chase it up if you wanted and I'd be interested in what you find.

Regards,

David Kummerow.


Your statement betrays a failure to read what I wrote. I wasn't referring to English "you", but to for example French "vous" and German "Sie". The time may come when these are no longer used as polite alternatives to "tu" and "du" respectively, but revert to being second and third person respectively plural pronouns. This process is already in progress. It is more advanced in Azerbaijani, where the plural used to be used for the singular as in French but is becoming quite rare. Would the loss of such usage, if it happened, be reversal of grammaticalisation and so falsify anyone's theory?

--
Peter Kirk
E-mail: peter at qaya.org
<http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew>
Blog: http://speakertruth.blogspot.com/
Website: http://www.qaya.org/





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