Believe on me: WTF?

[Wilson Gray]

James writes:

>" ... [P]eople ... reserve 'thou' and 'thee' for God and honestly
believe (because no one's told
> them otherwise) that this is a high formal form of address fit only for a deity."

That's certainly the way that I thought of it until my classmate asked
that question and the priest gave his answer.

Kudos to Hebrew for not having this Second-Person honorific jive.

Drifting OT (no pun intended) as usual, I was just able to eke out a
year of Israeli Hebrew at UC Davis before Ronnie dropped the hammer of
Reaganism, cutting state support for the U of C while, at the same
time tripling student fees (read: "tuitiion"). At Davis and, perhaps,
also at other smaller UC campuses, it was traditional to allow the
spouses of foreign students speaking "exotic" languages, such as
Hebrew, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Persian, Arabic, etc., to teach, in
the guise of "teaching assistants," their native languages. Thanks to
Ronnie's budget cuts, Davis had to say good-bye to all that and there
went my second year of Hebrew. Indeed, my class couldn't even afford
to publish a yearbook, to my great disappointment. I can Google some
of my classmates to see what they look like, nowadays. But I'd rather
see them as they looked in our student days. Especially the chicks!
:-)

-Wilson

On 8/31/07, Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at ohio.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIO.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Believe on me: WTF?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> <The teacher replied that all Christians (read: "Catholics and, perhaps,
> the Orthodox") are assumed
> to be personal friends of God and you don't speak formally to your buds.>
>
> What??  Protestants weren't included?!?  The KJV was sponsored by the
> Protestant Anglicans, remember!
> Be that as it may, James is doubtless right when he says most people today
> think of the thou/thee/thy paradigm as formal, not informal--as do most of
> my students until we do the Brown & Gilman tu/vos study.
>
> Beverly
>
> At 11:40 PM 8/30/2007, you wrote:
> >---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >-----------------------
> >Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> >Subject:      Re: Believe on me: WTF?
> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >When I was in high school. someone once asked why Latin prayers used
> >"Tu" instead of "Vos" or some other more formal term, given that God
> >often speaks of Himself as "We" (thus proving His Threeness, His
> >Trinity; like, if He was just one in the usual sense, He wouldn't call
> >himself "We." Would He? Well, would He?). The teacher replied that all
> >Christians (read: "Catholics and, perhaps, the Orthodox") are assumed
> >to be personal friends of God and you don't speak formally to your
> >buds.
> >
> >-Wilson
> >
> >On 8/30/07, James Harbeck <jharbeck at sympatico.ca> wrote:
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       James Harbeck <jharbeck at SYMPATICO.CA>
> > > Subject:      Re: Believe on me: WTF?
> > >
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > Wilson is right; "believe on" is King James Version diction. I have
> > > on uncommon occasion met people who adhere quite dogmatically to the
> > > language of the KJV and who use "believe on Him" -- of course, in
> > > secular things, they would say "believe in", but once God is
> > > involved, the dialect changes (I was about to say the register
> > > changes, but this is a big shift!). These are people who reserve
> > > "thou" and "thee" for God and honestly believe (because no one's told
> > > them otherwise) that this is a high formal form of address fit only
> > > for a deity.
> > >
> > > I should add that I've never heard anyone saying that atheists believe
> > off God.
> > >
> > >
> > > James Harbeck.
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > >
> >
> >
> >--
> >All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
> >come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> >-----
> >                                               -Sam'l Clemens
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
                                              -Sam'l Clemens

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org