Re: Story - TCOAIW

On Thu, 10 Oct 2002 01:53:25 +0200 "MNR. TD LAWRIE" <13488767@...>
writes:
> Robert B Wilson wrote:
>
> > > "Thou" isn't an archaic or formal singular for "you", I think.
> I
> > > believe
> > > it's a different pronoun, with plural "ye".
> >
> > the plural of 'thou' is 'you'.  'ye' is the plural of 'thee'.
> (that
> > sentence doesn't quite sound right to me. can someone tell me
> why?)
>
> If so, why does the Authorized Version give "how long halt ye
> between two opinions", where "ye" is clearly nominative?  Or what
> about Hartley Coleridge: "That ye are as happy as ye seem"?  In
> the singular the latter would surely be: "That thou art as happy as
> thou seemest".
i was confused.  'ye' is the plural of 'thou'.  'you' is the
plural of 'thee'.  (too many languages in my head... i'm learning
Hungarian, Japanese, Turkish, Croatian, and Russian in addition to three
conlangs (kontoko and kinsi rorotan are really fun ;-))

> > > As for contractions like "don't"/"he'd", I was always taught to
> > > avoid
> > > such contractions in prose (this was in the normal course of
> > > schooling for native speakers of English).  Thus I must agree
> with
> > > the analogy with the French "ne...pas".  Not sure whether I
> would
> > > always find such contractions "awkward" myself, though.
> >
> > i would agree, but then i would have to say that the correct
> > pronounciation of 'he had' (at least in my dialect) is [hid].
> > one interesting comment: i pronounce "he'd" (he would) as [hi@d]
> and
> > "he'd" (he had) as [hid].
>
> I have no objection to [hid] (or at least [hi:d]).  But isn't it a
> little
> extreme to characterize it as "the correct pronunciation"?  By the
> way, which dialect are you speaking of?
whatever dialect most people here in northeastern ohio speak.  most of my
friends also have the distinction between [hid] and [hi@d].
when they read, they usually read "he had" as [hi:&d] and "he'd" (<"he
had") as [hid] and consider "he had" to be more formal, with "he'd" being
the normal form, even in prose.
"had" and "would" are usually reduced to "'d" (especially after pronouns)
except when followed by "not" (then they become "hadn't" and "wouldn't").
so we have:
he had -> he'd [hid]
he would -> he'd [hi@d]
he had not -> he hadn't [hih&:n=t]
he would not -> he wouldn't [hiwUdI_Xnt]

> Thomas Lawrie
Robert Wilson (Elentirno Pereldar) (mailto:han_solo55@juno.com)
  ><(((>  ><(((>  <)))><  ><(((>  ><(((>
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