Thee and Thou/Friends

[Wilson Gray]

Larry, I'm impressed. Most people that I know, this correspondent
among them, are able to recall only the umgood parts and the name of
Mellors's johnson, even when they no longer remember the name of
Mellors himself. Most have no idea that there was any use of dialect
in the novel. They simply didn't notice it.

In my own defense, I'd like to point out that, by sheer coincidence,
one John Thomas was the  high-jump champion of the world years before
I had the oppurtunity to read LC'sL. Hence, the name, "John Thomas,"
was already fixed in my mind.

-Wilson

On 9/29/05, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Thee and Thou/Friends
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> >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.
>
> cf. Mellors in _Lady Chatterley's Lover_.  He's who I learned my "tha"s from.
>
> >   Shetland/Orkney have the
> >expected thoo/du.
> >
> >Paul Johnston
>