[Lexicog] Re: The irony of thou

[Fritz Goerling]

I have worked with an African language which, of course, does not have the
you/thou (tu/vous) distinction but where respect and politeness is expressed
by other means. Some wives still address their husbands as "my master" like
Sara to Abraham in the Bible. The younger generation does not do that any
more, but wives cannot address their husbands by their first names. They
might address him by "father of my children" or "older brother".

I know of couple where the husband is African and the wife Caucasian. He is
significantly older. They speak French with one another. In public he wants
her to address him by "vous."

Maybe someone should write a book on forms of address in different
languages. As this thread is entitled "The irony of thou", one could spin
this further and ask about "thou/vous/usted" used in irony or sarcasm. But
that information would probably not be included in a dictionary.

 

Fritz

 

 

Bill Poser wrote:


On another aspect of this, I knew a French couple in which the
husband used tu toward his wife while she used vous toward her
husband. Even the oldest people I know regarded this as odd.
It isn't clear if it is really archaic or just idiosyncratic.
The man was 15 years older than his wife, who was his former
secretary, and of a rather authoritarian bent. (He subscribed to
the newspaper of the monarchist-fascist movement and expressed
agreement with its editorials.)



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