Re: Story - TCOAIW

On Thursday 10 October 2002 01:30 am, MNR. TD LAWRIE wrote:
> Tristan wrote:
> > Okay, yes. I'm wrong... I was trying too hard. 'He'd like to go now'
> > etc. That was easy enough. And I wouldn't decontract that into 'he would
> > like to go now' to understand it, either. Same as I wouldn't turn 'you'
> > into 'thou' when singular, or 'don't' into 'do not'.
>
> "Thou" isn't an archaic or formal singular for "you", I think.  I believe
> it's a different pronoun, with plural "ye".
It is now.  "ye" was the nominative second person plural; 'you' was the
oblique second person plural.  "thou" was the nominative second person
singular; "thee" was the oblique second person singular.

What happened was that the Thou/Thee became assigned to the deity, while
ye/you became the polite word for ordinary human communication.

>
> 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 don't worry about it, using contractions like "wouldn't've" myself.

Wesley Parish

>
> Thomas
--
Mau e ki, "He aha te mea nui?"
You ask, "What is the most important thing?"
Maku e ki, "He tangata, he tangata, he tangata."
I reply, "It is people, it is people, it is people."