Re: German T/V distinction (was Re: Is the list dead?)

On Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 2:56 PM, Krista Casada <kcasada@...> wrote:
> Oddest of all, though, was recently hearing it used to address God in public
> prayer, where "Tu" has reigned supreme, though perhaps counterintuitively,
> for, well, a lot of years.
I'm told that it's common in Dutch to address God with the formal "U",
which also seems odd to me, who am used to the informal "du" in German
in this case. (Though I'm also told that Flemings will use the
informal "gij" in prayer, which is a typically Flemish pronoun,
corresponding(?) to Netherlands Dutch "jij".)

I also heard a Dutch girl of about my age address her parents with
formal "U"; I was told, however, that it's not that unusual given her
parents' age - apparently, addressing one's parents with "U" was not
uncommon until about fifty years ago or so, and her parents were of a
generation that expected "U" even though she was born later. In
Germany, on the other hand, addressing one's father with "Herr Papa"
and "Sie" or "Ihr" sounds like something my grandfather (born 1897)
might have done, but not someone born more recently.

Cheers,
--
Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>

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