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

#
# 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"?
#

I believe this was "i" in older swedish, but it attracted the
-n off of the 2nd plural of old(er) swedish verb forms....

thus:  talan i > tala ni > talar ni

i believe danish still has "i" as the 2nd plural pronoun.


-tim
http://www.zece.com/conlang/

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