Origin & Evolution of Languages

[Robert Orr]

> I've read that the use of sibh as singular formal is based on
>French vous and became widespread during the Stuart dynasty. But I've also
>seen this phrased as an apocryphal sounding story something along the lines
>that Bonnie Prince Charlie & his French companions insisted on being
>addressed as "vous", so they accomodated them by using "sibh". So the whole
>French connection may be apocryphal

Aprocryphal indeed.  Bonnie Prince Charlie & his French companions knew no
Gaelic.

Everything had to be translated for them.

Robert Orr