Y'all and No?

[Laurence Horn]

At 2:08 PM -0500 3/29/01, David Bergdahl wrote:
>Laurence Horn wrote:>
>
>>  I think you mean "thou"/"thee", the 2d singular.  "Ye" was just the
>>  accusative of "you", the 2d person plural, IIRC.  I'm pretty sure the 2d
>>  plural (with case leveled) was used enough as the "polite" 2d
>>  singular that the latter was just swallowed up, except among Quakers
>>  and in archaic diction.
>>
>>  larry
>
>I think you misspoke, Larry: "ye" was the nominative and "you" the accusative
>as in John 8: 32 "AND YE SHALL KNOW THE TRUTH, AND THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU
>FREE"
>
>--db
>____________________________________________________________________
thanks, Dave.  That was my motivation for the first "I" in "IIRC".
The main point is that retaining "ye" as distinct from "you" wouldn't
have helped with the singular/plural problem.  I guess I was thinking
that if "thou" was nominative and "thee" accusative, "you" and "ye"
OUGHT to be parallel, but nooooo.  No wonder our ancestors went in
for neutralization; can't hardly blame 'em.

larry