Re: Old Norse (was Re: New to the list)

Nik Taylor wrote:

> "Thomas R. Wier" wrote:
> > No, actually, what he said is right.  "Thou" was always the standard
> > singular second person pronoun, until sometime around Shakespeare's
> > time
>
> Are you sure it was that late in time?  I thought it was earlier in the
> Middle English period.
Well, it certainly was then too.  I was under the impression that thing
were starting to change around the beginning of the Reformation, about
50 years after the official cut-off date for Middle to Modern English.

> >    He thought the word president was so commonly used that it
> >    was undignified by itself
>
> One suggestion was "His Elective Exellency, President of the United
> States and Defender of their Liberties".  One person jokingly suggested
> "His Superfluousness" for the Vice-President.  :-)
Yes, he is quite superfluous.   I was fairly surprised some weeks ago when
the BBC referred to the Vice-President as the "second most powerful man
in the world", which is patently ridiculous.  He has a bully-pulpit, but that's
about it.  My friend put it like this:  he's a President-under-a-glass. I kinda
like that image -- "Buy your Al Gore action figure today! Watch him testify
to the Grand Jury!"

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Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
ICQ#: 4315704   AIM: trwier
"Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."
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