Ty/Vy oddities?

[Richard Robin]

Dear SEELANGS readers,


Over the past 25 years I very occasionally have heard two types of ты/вы
oddities (odd to me, at least). I wonder if someone can tell me whether
these are total anomalies, or whether I was just imagining things.

1.  Collective ты for вы. At a party, someone tells a story and addresses
the entire group as ты, e.g. И это всё! Но если *ты* хочешь знать
подробности, я расскажу всё. (The substance of the conversation is made up;
I can’t remember it unfortunately — just the use of the explicit personal
pronoun ты, which suggests that this was *not* the impersonal ты -
equivalent to the English “yuh,” the informal “one.” (I always tell my
students, for “yuh” drop the ты unless in non-nominative.) I admit that I
heard this only on two or three occasions. But the pronoun ты was quite
prominent, and it was crystal clear that the entire group was being
addressed. All were on ты with each other.

2.  (Even more unexplainable): Ты for вы in reported speech, something like
this:

Вот я был в турагентстве, меня спрашивают, А у тебя есть загранпаспорт?
Отвечаю, С собой нет. Они: Тогда вернись с заграном.

Again, I’m making up the exchange unfortunately. But the use of ты in
reported speech for what would have been a вы conversation seems to be
common (and optional?) I should mention, that again, in each case the
story-teller and the listeners were on ты with each other.

Any comments from NSs or sociolinguists? I’m sorry I don’t have exact data.
I usually don’t pull out voice recorders at parties. But these questions
have been bugging me since 1990.

Richard Robin


-- 
Richard M. Robin, Ph.D.
Director Russian Language Program
Academy of Distinguished Teachers
The George Washington University
Washington, DC 20052
202-994-7081

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