241–250 of 441 posts
Thee and Thou are still used in Northern England (Yorkshire and Lancashire). Although probably only by older people and often spoken as Thi and Tha.
Interesting, and are those used as the informal you? Or in reference to singular?
Old Yorkshire phrase for telling children to mind who they address as 'thee / tha': "Don't thee tha them as thas thee" - kind of a similar sense as 'mind your Ps and Qs'.
In my native Texan English, "y'all" can certainly act as a singular polite "you" (EDIT: though it is not terribly common). I often use "Howdy, how y'all doin?" as a polite greeting to people I don't know regardless of the number of people I am addressing, though switch to just "you" after making acquaintance. Funny enough, "howdy" is a contraction of the older "how do ye" and some people still consider it both a gree…
Interesting on the “y’all”. I’m a Texan and have never addressed a singular person as y’all. If I do address a person as y’all as in “How are y’all doing?”, it’s assumed I’m speaking of the family unit that person belongs to rather than the individual. While we Texans might find it polite or friendly, in the corporate world I’ve been told to avoid using it in emails.
I think this is the formal singular "y'all" that people keep referring to. It can sometimes be short for "you and your family," which is why you would see it in greetings and goodbyes e.g. "How are y'all doing today" or "I hope to see y'all again soon."
For signs of formality, it has the indirection of not addressing the person directly (like "your grace" "your honor" or "your mercy"), and is usually used as an stylized expression of concern. To my ear, "How was y'all's holidays?" sounds really professional, like how your lawyer would start a meeting.
These days, thanks to streamers, some of the young'uns have started using "chat" as a fourth person plural pronoun.
(Or maybe I’m being whooshed)
Thee? Thou must assuredly have encountered thine pronoun in formal works before...
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This so untrue I had to make an account to reply to you. Quebec french is standardised by the OQLF (Office Québécois de la Langue Française) and the formal/informal distinction is as important in our french as it is in other cultures. The reason it might seem less common is because most conversations people have are informal. In formal settings, it is still expected of people to use "vous" rather than "tu". It is see…
I'm pretty sure they were talking about their impression of trends regarding how people actually talk, not how some literal language lawyers demand they speak. Whether they're actually correct or not, I have no idea and it's beside the point.
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Yes, but imagine it not sounding funny like in the English case, because it's a normal feature of the language/culture...
Is it because of cultural expectations in how men and women should address each other? Does the formal language get used for properly formal situations as well? Is there a whole set of specific terms for this? Sorry for all the questions. I just found it fascinating.
But I could relate it, as it was a "chic" thing to do in my parts too back in the day (until around the 1970s), for upper class folks (using the polite forms of address, and so on).
A good analogy in English terms might be the flirting with all the speaking formalities in period movies live "Room with a view" or "Pride and Prejudice".
As someone coming from a culture with T-V distinction [1], I always wished we dropped one of the branches like English did in the past. The informal T vs formal V causes confusion in conversation with semi-strangers. Eg. At work you never really know which way to speak to someone at a watercooler. If you choose the informal T you make them your equal. Ehich might be perceived as insulting to them, since they might wa…
Is speaking to someone formally considered ending up in an inferior position in all cultures? In Persian if someone expects to be spoken with formally, they have to speak formally themselves. So when you speak formally you're kinda bringing both parties up. You can even flirt by speaking formally.
E.g.,
Formal polite: military, business email, public announcement
Formal non-polite: textbooks, novels
Informal polite: kids' books, between coworkers, between customer and clerk
Informal non-polite: siblings, childhood friends, mom to kids
In German, we use "sie" the German equivalent of "they". Thus, to be polite, you address someone as many people that aren't part of the conversation.
Dutch is similar with “U” being both singular and plural. Verb conjugation is the same for both cases. This has been interesting as an English speaker learning Dutch! Luckily I never really latched on to sms-speak but I can imagine some cohorts of English speakers have to break the habit of reading “u” as shorthand for the the full word.
As for sms-speak, I'd be flabbergasted if you encountered the u-form anywhere in text messages except maybe in automated OTP messages from your bank. So I would guess that's something you needn't worry about :).
Good luck in your language-learning journey. Assuming you're living in the Netherlands, I'm curious as to how your integration is going? My observation is that Dutch culture can be insanely hard for foreigners to get a foothold in, partly because of the "polite" tendency of most locals to insist on speaking English around non-native Dutch. I feel like that gesture, which may seem accommodating on the surface level, can almost be an exclusionary dynamic in itself.
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English became the lingua franca of science because of the decline of German science following the world wars. English became the language of commerce due to the commercial dominance of first the British Empire and then the United States. So still not really due to some intrinsic merits of the language.
The anglos won the world wars due to the intrinsic merits of english, not only because war itself requires communication, but also because they were able to mobilize more resources, including the resources of a country full of recent immigrants, who had all already learned english.
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asshole is a very euphemistic translation
Could you explain. I'd guess "Arschloch"? The translation of "bad language" is very tricky. English is my mother tongue but I live in a German (sort-of, it's complicated) speaking country. I've learned that "scheisse" is not a very good translation for the English word "sh*t". It seems to me that the English word is much stronger/more offensive than the common German translation at least where I'm from. German "schei…
This must vary hugely from place to place.
I’ve know people here (builders and Australians) to use ‘c*t’ as a sort of endearment, and there aren’t a ton of scenarios where ‘shit’ would cause anyone problems.