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"?

Cheers,
Eamon

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