[PW] Ye equals The?

[Meredith Dixon]

On Tuesday 02 October 2007, Suzanne Guinn wrote:
> I thought Ye was old English for You - plural and Thee was You - singular - 
as was used in Shogun if you remember that miniseries.  Also, it was used 
that way in the King James Bible.

The second-person pronouns in Old English were [transliterated]: thu 
(subject), the (direct object), thin (possessive), singular, and ge, eow, 
eower, plural. 

In Middle English and Early Modern English, these became thou, thee, thine
and ye, you, yours, and at first the distinction was still singular and
plural.  But soon thou, thee, thine became a familiar form, used only
to family members, close friends, children, and servants, and "ye, you, yours" 
was used in more formal situations for singular and plural alike.
We use "Thou" to God because we are His children.

The "ye" currently under discussion, however, is not a pronoun but a
typographic variant of the definite article "the".  









-- 
Meredith Dixon <dixonm at pobox.com>
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