Re: Old Norse (was Re: New to the list)
| From: | BP Jonsson <bpj@...> |
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| Date: | Sunday, June 18, 2000, 9:39 |
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At 15:46 17.6.2000 -0700, Marcus Smith wrote:
>As the merchants became richer than the minor nobles, they began to demand
>the same amount of respect, so people began using the polite "you" rather
>than common "thou." The number of rich commoners rose, and they took
>offense to "thou". Before long, it was difficult to tell (in the middle
>class) who should be "thou" and who should be "you", so everybody was
>called "you" to avoid offending a potential client/supplier/partner.
>Eventually "thou" dropped out of common usage altogether.
That account sounds daft enough to be true! ;-)
/BP
B.Philip Jonsson mailto:melroch@mail.com
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