Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: OT: My first published hypertext up on BathHouse

From:Remi Villatel <maxilys@...>
Date:Sunday, March 13, 2005, 0:09
Philip Newton wrote:

>>The Shaqueans don't say "Hello" or "Good bye". When two Shaqueans meet, they >>usually ask /ri'rja ?/ which literally means "Do/Are/Have thou?" but which >>actually means "Can I speak to thee?" or "What can I do for thee?" depending >>on which one speaks first. It's the way to ask "Can we interact now?" or "Do >>thou allow me to enter thy personal space?".
[---CUT---]
> Saying "Do/are/have thou" is as ungrammatical for me as "do/are/have he". >
[---CUT---]
> > I'm not sure whether you were aware of these conjugation forms for > "thou", which is why I pointed them out.
Of course, I know that using "thou" without the corresponding conjugation is ungrammatical but I use it only to mark the difference in between singular "you" and plural "you". I don't feel like inserting (sg.) or (pl.) in the middle of every sentence. Because (almost) everybody knows that "thou" is 2SG but much less people know the corresponding conjugation, I don't use it and everybody still understands. What was thy question? ;-) -- ================== Remi Villatel maxilys_@_tele2.fr ==================

Reply

Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>