Re: Nostratic (was Re: Schwebeablaut (was Re: tolkien?))

Rob Haden scripsit:

> English has replaced two of its pronouns: first
> _hi_ "they" was replaced by an Old Norse 3p pronoun, which is the ancestor
> of Modern English "they";
And a good thing too, or the 3sg/3pl distinction would have vanished in
the nominative due to sound change.  But the accusative pronoun _hem_
survives still as part of the living speech of every anglophone, though
it doesn't normally appear in writing expect in dialogue:  "I saw 'em
going that way."

> then _thou_ "you [singular]" was replaced by the
> 2p form, originally _ge_/_eow_.
This OTOH was not sound change but a real functional shift: the plural
became the polite form, as in most European languages, and then the
familiar fell out of use except as preserved in the Bible translation,
so it now seems ceremonious rather than familiar!

--
"In my last lifetime,                           John Cowan
I believed in reincarnation;                    http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
in this lifetime,                               jcowan@reutershealth.com
I don't."  --Thiagi                             http://www.reutershealth.com

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