Thee and Thou/Friends

[Paul Johnston]

The use of thee in the nominative is also typical of the SW English
pattern.  I wonder how popular 17c. Quaker religion was in that area--I
know that the North was a stronghold, and William Penn came from SE
Bucks (JUST inside the SW dialct area).  The N English nominative form
is tha, which in Yorkshire at any rate = thy.  Shetland/Orkney have the
expected thoo/du.

Paul Johnston
On Wednesday, September 28, 2005, at 05:19  PM, Barclay Walsh wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Barclay Walsh <bawals at NYTIMES.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Thee and Thou/Friends
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Dear ADS:
>
> As an ADS lurker and birthright Quaker, I'd just add that growing up
> in a
> Friends' community, I never heard anyone say "Thou." It was always
> "thee'
> with a singular verb form, as in "How is thee?"  "Does thee have
> conscientious objector status?" and so on.
>
> My understanding was that in England the plural "You" was used to
> address
> your social superiors, and was therefore offensive to the Friends'
> philosophy of total equality.
>
> Why  the "Thee" form did not "win out"  here instead of the "you" is
> something I'd love to know more about.
>
> thanks!
> Barclay Walsh
> NYT DC research