Re: Word used more than once
From: | Peter Bleackley <peter.bleackley@...> |
Date: | Thursday, May 18, 2006, 8:56 |
staving Nik Taylor:
>caeruleancentaur wrote:
>>Why the Quakers use "thee" instead of "thou" I don't know. I'm sure it
>>has something to do with the English of the Bible, but it is strange that
>>they settled on "thee" rather than "thou."
>
>The use of "thou" instead of "you" stems from when "you" had connotations
>of deference, back when "thou" remained as a familiar singular. The
>Quakers, as an egalitarian sect, refused to use terms of respect, and
>instead, addressed all as "thou".
The interesting thing is that the most common survival of "thou" forms in
modern English is in prayer - the familiar form is used to address the
Supreme Being. But of course, if you regard God as your Father, it would
historically have been the appropriate form.
ObConlang - does anyone have a language in which some grammatical form is
related specifically to religious observance?
Pete
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