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M Sarkozy wants people to use the formal vous rather than the informal tu when addressing each other, to get more respec', man.
Well - we did that some time in the 17th or 18th century according to Wikipedia. So there.
(For those who can't be bothered to follow that up, "you" is the equivalent of "vous", and "thee" of "tu". Using the formal pronoun seems not to have increased respect in England, however.)
In Yorkshire English we still make the distinction between the formal 'you' and the informal thee/thy and all its compounds - pretty much as they do in French or German.
 | loiswakeman [Member] http://lois.co.uk 25/05/07 @ 09:56 |
Thanks Lee - that is interesting. Is it common usage amongst the young, or just older people? So much dialect and regional pronunciation seems to have been obliterated by 'TV speak' these days!
 | lee954 [Member] 25/05/07 @ 12:21 |
These forms are used by everyone; maybe slightly more so by men than women. Interestingly when using any personal pronoun in Yorkshire English (Tyke as we call it) all forms are fully inflected - yet again, a bit like as is done in German.
On the subject of northern variants: there is the northern (Norse?)strong verb which is sometimes the grammatically 'wrong' "We/I were/was sat/stood" instead of 'sitting', to the different words such as "I tret myself" instead of treated. Those such as 'lit' and 'lighted' don't seem to have any regional significance, while 'dove' for 'dived' seems to have survived only in America.
Sorry about the excess of inverted commas, but we can't use italics, bold or underline in comments.
this is what I was taught in French at school, we addressing someone you do not know or on friendly terms you use Vous, other times you use Tu.
I also had an "argument" with the same french teacher over "ons", she stated that in English the equivalent word "one" is not used and only reserved for the royals et al.
She was of course wrong. lol
I can see "thee" going down well in supermarkets, market stalls, gyms and schools.....
In northern Lincolnshire 'thee' has more-or-less disappeared in my lifetime, but is still used in stock phrases such as 'go th'sen', 'do it th'sen' and 'thee's not reet sharp'.
25/05/07 @ 09:33