Monday, October 31, 2005
‘On Language’ 10/26: Bring back thou and thee!
It might be helpful to bring back use of `thou’ and `thee’
‘On Language‘
Chicago Tribune
October 26, 2005
By Nathan Bierma
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Q. I appreciated your recent article on intensifiers and the disappearance of “ye” in the 16th Century [“Linguistics study: `Friends’ reflects speech changes. So?,” Sept. 7]. But while you’re on the subject, what was the difference between “ye” and “thee,” and “thou” and “you”?
—Larry Simpson, Chicago
A. In the late 1400s, English had a second person pronoun system that worked this way: “Thou” was the singular subject (“Thou must ...”), “thee” the singular object (”... for thee”), “ye” the plural subject and “you” the plural object.
In a relatively rapid series of puzzling changes, “ye” and “you” kicked “thou” and “thee” out of the language, and then “you” almost completely replaced “ye” by the early 1600s. In a little more than a century, “you” went from having one grammatical job to having four.
The resulting ambiguity in English second person pronouns leads to such phrases as “you guys” and “y’all,” which are frowned upon as improper but are often necessary distinctions, thanks to this 16th Century shift.
I propose we get the very useful “thou” and “thee” back in the English language, but, as this episode shows, language change has always been beyond our control.