Origin & Evolution of Languages

[Elizabeth Whitaker]

At 11:00 PM 6/10/99 -0500, Nik Taylor wrote:
>Something like that.  Remember that in Middle English, the "ye" form,
>originally a plural, became a polite pronoun.  Out of politeness, the
>older "thou" forms were lost.  There was some degree of egalitarianism,
>or at least a more democratic society.

The Society of Friends' (Quakers') use of  "thou" and  "thee"  instead of
"you"  forms
was a reason they encountered so much disapproval in various forms.

In other European languages, such as French, Russian, and German, there are
definite
social and cultural protocols about the circumstances in which one should
use intimate
or formal "you" forms.

Elizabeth Whitaker