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?
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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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