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

Jan van Steenbergen wrote:
>  --- Philip Newton skrzypszy:
>
> > Or do Dutch people say "gij" to anybody else then to God?
>
> Didn't you follow a recent thread on this subject
I did. And I seem to recall that someone said they addressed God that way.

> "Gij" in commonly used as the second person singular in
> Belgium;
I know. Which is why I asked about "Dutch people" rather than, say,
"Dutch-speaking people". Perhaps I should have been more explicit.

> if it were used in the Netherlands it would sound either very
> Flemish or very old-fashioned, but it is not impossible. It is
> true that for many people "gij" has clearly a biblical connotation,
> though. About one week ago I wrote more about it:
>
http://listserv.brown.edu/archives/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0209a&L=conlang&F=&S=&P=
24244
> Since this link is too long for one line, you will probably have to
> copy-and-paste twice if you want to read it.
It was one line when I got it. I note that you claim it is used in
literature; arguably, so is "thou" in English. But I'd say that most people,
if they use it at all, use it in speaking to God, and I was wondering
whether this was the same in Dutch.

Let me re-state my question.

Do most people from the Netherlands (*not* from Belgium), if they use "gij"
at all, use it to anyone except God?

Cheers,
philip

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