LL-L "Morphology" 2003.05.13 (04) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 13.MAY.2003 (04) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Colin Wilson <lcwilson at btinternet.com>
Subject: LL-L "Lexicon" 2003.05.12 (03) [E]

At 01:06 13/05/03, Críostóir Ó Ciardha wrote:
>It is indeed clear from 'go raibh maith agaibh'. 'Agaibh' is the
>multiple form of 'agat' (at you). If I were saying
>thank you to a single person, I would use 'go raibh maith agat'. I
>couldn't use 'go raibh maith agaibh' - it
>wouldn't make any sense.

I'm surprised to read this, partly because there is a tendency in many
European languages to use the 2nd person plural pronoun as a formal
singular pronoun. In Gàidhlig, a close relative of Irish, _sibh_ is used
in that way; the same is true of _chi_ in Welsh. A similar principle
applies in French, in which it is discourteous *not* to address an adult
stranger as _vous_; this applies in German and Russian too. Even in a
non-Indo-European language such as Finnish, the plural pronoun _te_ is
used instead of the singular _sinä_ in order to express formality or
respect when addressing only one person.

I'm surprised to read that this doesn't happen in Irish, not only
because
it's against the general trend, but also because I've seen it stated
otherwise elsewhere, e.g. at
http://homepage.tinet.ie/~abardubh/lessons/ceacht01.html

Guidwull tae awbodie,

Colin Wilson.

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