yet more thee/thou
Posted by Art on July 07, 1998 at 23:37:47:
In response to Friendly Persuasion, written by Ken on July 07, 1998 at 08:10:29
You're correct in noting that particular usage, and that it was/is grammatically incorrect. By the period that the movie portrays, the distinction between singular and plural "you" was quite gone, certainly in America, but the "plain speech" remained among the Quakers in a corrupted form in which "thee" was both nominative and objective. Correctly: "thou art." Plain Speech: "thee is." Correct: "Dost thou see that virgin?" Plain Speech: "Does thee see that virgin?" And so forth. I suspect it became corrupted as the everyday usage among non-Quakes disappeared. At the starting of Quakerism the use of plain speech with everyone was one of the distinctive characteristics of the group and was one that they clung to and which gave them yet further "distinction," not to say pecularity, as the original reasons for it faded. Sorry anout your 6th grade teacher, by the way. She were a very pain in the butt, no doubt.
- Pains & Pains Ken 08:24:03 7/08/98
(0)
Posting followups to old messages is disabled; instead go to the main index and post a new message which mentions this one.
