Quote:
Originally Posted by ahi
I penned that one in a frenzy, Zelda. I was called in as an interpreter for a Refugee Determination Hearing, and my case was cancelled. The way things work meant that I would still get paid... assuming I sat around doing nothing for 4 hours.
Just for such an eventuality I had brought a recent letter from a friend to read, reread, and possible answer. But, I seem to have temporarily misplaced the paper, and it seemed to me this other interpreter used it as scrap paper to write a phone number and walked off with it.
Amusingly enough though, after eyeing this "thouable thief" of mine for 10-15 minutes, somebody found the paper for me--it had just fallen down on the ground by the phone I had been using.
She was innocent! But grand for this little poem.  |
the poem is even better when you know the story behind it !
Quote:
Originally Posted by ahi
Sorry, this will be  .
You know the big issue with that. I am pretty sure that to most native speakers of English "thou" sounds formal, whereas the (historically formal) "you" is the more colloquial one.
A reversal I believe due to the fact that "thou" died out on account of having become nothing short of thoroughly offensive. So, with few exceptions, our main surviving examples of English that uses "thou" is from previous to that period, and we therefore associate "thou" with a sense of archaism (and make the leap therefrom to formality).
I think. |
yes, i believe you are right about that (i read an article about thou a long time ago on an etymologist's blog, i've forgotten most of the details but i remember the basic evolution).
i should have said perhaps "campaigning (rather facetiously)" since i don't seriously intend / expect to reintroduce the use of thou in english, i just like the idea very much.
i do like the southern american word "y'all" though for the plural form, it's a funny word but very useful too.