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

On 09/11 13:19  bnathyuw wrote:

> what do some of the non-atheists on the list have to
> say on this ?
>
Now there's a definition of a word waiting to coined.  With the
increasing marginalisation of religion in the First World a word
defining the school of thought that mythopoeic being(s) exist,
particularly as a focus of worldview, could be useful.

As for the question at hand, I once heard an older woman by addressing
the godhead as 'thou'.  She was of the generation that was still
accustomed to using 'thou' in ceremonial language.  As she was
extemporising she unconsciously changed to 'you'.  I think it was the
verb endings that went first.  It's one thing to say 'dost' and 'hast',
but that ending was dropped with other verbs.

I keep a journal, and most of it, for 6 years, has been written in a
personal language based on 'Wordcraft' and 'A Concise Anglo-Saxon
Dictionary'.  I occasionally record direct speech in it and on those
occasions I prefer to recognise the informality of NZEng by using |duu|
rather than |jy|.  So 'thou' survives there, even though it is extinct
in my everyday speech, except where it survives in fixed language like
the Lord's Prayer, or God defend New Zealand.

- andrew.
--
Andrew Smith, Intheologus                         hobbit@griffler.co.nz
alias Mungo Foxburr of Loamsdown
http://hobbit.griffler.co.nz/homepage.html

Pray for Peace, Act for Peace

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