Re: English: Thou

BP Jonsson wrote:
>
> At 01:07 21.6.2000 -0400, Robert Hailman wrote:
> > >
> > > Or /D@/, which I believe is used in some English dialects.  Of course,
> > > /Du/ was the Old/Middle English pronunciation, before the Great Vowel
> > > Shift diphthongized it.
> > >
> >
> >That's what I thought originally, but then wouldn't "you" become /jau/
> >at the same time? Unless originally it was pronounced /jo/, or "thou"
> >was stressed and "you" was unstressed. But before the Great Vowel Shift,
> >English spelling of vowels was much more regular then it is now, no?
>
> Probably /ju/ is from an unstressed form [jU].  Which proves that by GVS
> time there was no unstressed form of thou anymore.
>
Yes, yes it does. Is there any evidence that thou was also pronounced
/DU/? I've never heard of it being pronounced like that at some point.

> BTW: what about using You /jau/ (note Capitalization) as a (representation
> of) an honorific?
>
That's a good idea. That way we can ditch terms like "Your excellency"
and just say /jau/. It might be too late, though, I kicked of using
/jau/ to replace /ju/ today.

Or maybe /jau/ for the plural, /ju/ for the singular? Just a thought.

--
Robert