Re: German T/V distinction (was Re: Is the list dead?)
| From: | Philip Newton <philip.newton@...> |
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| Date: | Thursday, April 24, 2008, 16:56 |
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On Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 5:22 PM, Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...> wrote:
> Why do we call this a "T/V" distinction? <French tu/vous? Can't be
> <Latin since it didn't have a formality distinction in the 2nd person
> pronouns....
Wikipedia claims (s.v. "T-V distinction") that the term originates
from Brown and Gilman (1960) based on Latin "tu/vos", and that the
latter started to become used for the Roman emperor starting in the
4th century AD.
Cheers,
--
Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>
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