Re: USAGE: 2nd pers. pron. for God

On Thu, 12 Sep 2002 05:17, Eamon Graham wrote:
> John Cowan wrote:
> > Steg Belsky scripsit:
> > > Actually, according to my Yiddish textbook, Yiddish-speakers use the
> > > familiar |du| second-person pronoun to talk to God, instead of the
> > > formal
> > >
> > > |ir|.
> >
> > It's standard to use the 2sg (familiar) in German too, so this feature is
> > surely inherited from the common ancestor.
>
> In Swedish we use the 2sg familiar too, but that doesn't mean too
> much since the 2nd sg formal "Ni" is going the way of the dodo
> anyway.  But for fun I looked in an 1870 Swedish version of the
> Lord's Prayer that says: "Fader vår, _du_ som är i himmelen."
>
> By the way, can anyone fill me in on the etymology of "Ni"?
It's derived from "The Knights Who Say 'Ni' ", anyone can see that!

Wesley Parish

>
> Cheers,
> Eamon
--
Mau e ki, "He aha te mea nui?"
You ask, "What is the most important thing?"
Maku e ki, "He tangata, he tangata, he tangata."
I reply, "It is people, it is people, it is people."