Borrowing pronouns

[Rick Mc Callister]

I seem to remember that Gaidhlig [Scots Gaelic] calqued French  <vous>
by using <sibh> "you all" [sp?] for formal 2nd person singular

[snip]

In Dutch originally: {du} = "thou", {jij} = "ye",
>{uwe}?= "your (pl)", or similar (I think). Later:-
>  {jij} used as polite singular as in French and English.
>  {Uwe Edelheid} = "Your Nobility" used as polite "you" sg & pl, later
>abbreviated in writing and then in speech to (U E} and then {U} (by imitating
>Spanish {usted}?)
>  {jij} no longer used as plural.
>  (du} fell completely out of use :: in the 16th century it was a literary
>rarity. (But I have seen {dou wilde se} = "thou wild sea" in a poem in
>modern Frisian.)
>    The present situation is (I think: my Dutch has got a bit stale; I
>learned it for 2 holidays motorcycling around Holland around 1980):-
>  nom          gen
>  jij & je     jouw      you (sg) (intimate / condescending, like French
>{tu})
>  gij & ge               thou (sg) (religious / dialectal / poetical)
>  jullie    van jullie   you (pl) (familiar)  (< "you people")
>  u            uw        you (sg & pl) (polite)

[snip]