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<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">L O W L A N D S - L - 05 January 2008 - Volume 06
</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">=========================================================================</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From: R. F. Hahn <</span><a style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank">
sassisch@yahoo.com</a><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">> </span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Subject: Etymology</span>
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Lowlanders,</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">On the topic of pronominal repluralization I wrote amongst other things:</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><div style="margin-left: 40px; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">In Modern
English, the original objective case of the second person plural form
has become the general nominative second person pronoun. This is
because this plural form came to be used as a polite pronoun and
eventually made the familiar pronoun redundant. As a result, there is
no longer a distinction both between familiar and polite and between
singular and plural.
</span><br></div><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br><...><br><br></span><div style="margin-left: 40px; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">The
Dutch and Afrikaans suffixing of a word for "people" seems to be being
"reenacted" these days in American English, where the use of an older
polite form did away with the distinction between singular and plural,
and the plural is now being restored by the addition of "guys" to
"you." If this becomes formalized, English may end up with "you" for
the singular and with something like *"youguys" for the plural.
</span><br></div><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Of course, this need for repluralization is not new, at least not in American English. However, "you people" has a negative ring to it (probably because of its early usage), something like "your kind of people," and "you all" (> "y'all") did not spread to general American English because it is Southern and therefore stigmatized, has low prestige.
</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">I know that not too long ago especially older Americans greatly disliked "you guys" (and in some varieties even genitive "you guyses"!), found it disrespectful, especially coming from younger people addressing them. However, not only does it seem to be more acceptable now but I hear more and more seniors use it themselves. Might "you guys" make it eventually, and might it be passed on to other varieties of English?
</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Regards,</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Reinhard/Ron</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
•
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