Re: English: Thou

Nik Taylor wrote:
>
> Muke Tever wrote:
> > Actually I think many people, perhaps as a combination of the archaism of
> > "thou" and its use towards God, have reanalyzed "thou" as a _formal_ form.
> > I know that's what I thought
>
> Yeah, that's definitely how's it's seen now.  In Star Wars (Episode 6, I
> think?), Darth Vader asks the Emperor, "What is thy bidding, my master?"
> - definitely a reversal of the original usage!
>
> > Also I think 'thou' /Dau/ is kind of a mouthful.  Maybe it oughtta be /Du/,
> > to rhyme with 'you'.  Or maybe I'm just used to 'gotcha'-forms.  ("Gottha?
> > Whadja got?")
>
> 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?

Maybe I should just pronounce "you" /jau/ out of spite.

--
Robert