Re: Story - TCOAIW

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".

> > 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?

Thomas Lawrie