Culture · 6 pages · 12 min
Why thou dropped out of ordinary English
English once had a familiar singular. You spread until thou sounded marked or archaic.
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From the opening
Thou dropped out of ordinary English because you, once the plural and the polite singular, spread to every addressee until the familiar singular sounded special. A distinction English used to mark in the pronoun was abandoned in everyday speech, and only marked pockets kept the old form. The opening covers you was plural and polite, thou narrowed to marked uses, and scripture and Quaker speech kept it.
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Inside
- You was plural and polite
- Thou narrowed to marked uses
- Scripture and Quaker speech kept it
- Neutral prose lost the choice
- Where the idea stops applying
- A distinction worth keeping
Sources
- The English T-V distinction and the spread of you
- Thou in the King James Bible and in Quaker plain speech