Thou: Difference between revisions

{{short description|English archaic personal2nd person singular pronoun}}

[[File:William Shakespeare by John Taylor, edited.jpg|thumb|Most modern English speakers encounter "thou" predominantly in the works of [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]]; in the works of other Renaissance, medieval and early modern writers; and in the [[King James Bible]] or [[Douay-Rheims Bible]].<ref name=Columbia>[https://archive.org/details/columbiaguidetos00wils_0 <!-- quote=thee. --> "thou, thee, thine, thy (prons.)"], Kenneth G. Wilson, ''The Columbia Guide to Standard American English''. 1993. Retrieved 2 March 2016.</ref><ref name="Pressley">{{cite web |last=Pressley |first=J. M. |url=http://www.bardweb.net/content/thou.html |title=Thou Pesky 'Thou' |website=Shakespeare Resource Centre |date=8 January 2010}}</ref>]]

In standard [[Modern English]], ''thou'' continues to be used in formal religious contexts, in wedding ceremonies ("[[I thee wed]]"), in literature that seeks to reproduce archaic language, and in certain fixed phrases such as "[[wikt:fare thee well|fare thee well]]". For this reason, many associate the pronoun with solemnity or formality. Many dialects have compensated for the lack of a singular/plural distinction caused by the disappearance of ''thou'' and ''ye'' through the creation of new plural pronouns or pronominals, such as ''[[yinz]]'', ''yous''<ref>{{Cite book |title = A Handbook of Varieties of English: CD-ROM |last = Kortmann |first = Bernd |publisher = Mouton de Gruyter |year = 2004 |isbn = 978-3110175325 |page = 1117}}</ref> and ''[[y'all]]'' or the colloquial ''you guys'' ("you lot" in England). ''Ye'' remains common in some parts of Ireland, but the examples just given vary regionally and are usually restricted to colloquial speech.

Verb forms used after ''thou'' generally end in ''-est'' (pronounced {{IPA|/-ᵻst/}}) or ''-st'' in the [[indicative mood]] in both the [[present tense|present]] and the [[past tense|past]] [[grammatical tense|tenses]]. These forms are used for both [[Germanic strong verb|strong]] and [[Germanic weak verb|weak verb]]s.

*to be: ''thou art'' (or ''thou beest''), ''thou wast'' {{IPAc-en|w|ɒ|s|t}} (or subjunctive ''thou wert''; originally ''thou were'')

There are some speakers of modern English{{who?|date=July 2024}} that use thou/thee but use thee as the subject and conjugate the word with is/was, i.e. ''thee is, thee was, thee has, thee speaks, thee spoke, thee can, thee could''. However this is not considered standard.{{citation needed|date=July 2024}}{{clarification needed|reason=What standard?|date=July 2024}}

| {{lang|fy|Do hast}} <br /> {{IPA-fy|doudoː ˈhast|}}

| {{lang|de|Du hast}} <br /> {{IPA-|de|duː ˈhast|}}

| {{lang|nl|Jij hebt}} <br /> {{IPA-|nl|jɛi ˈɦɛpt|}}

| {{lang|de|Sie hat}} <br /> {{IPA-|de|ziː ˈhat|}}

| {{lang|nl|Zij heeft}} <br /> {{IPA-|nl|zɛi ˈɦeːft|}}

| {{lang|de|Was hast du?}} <br /> {{IPA-|de|vas ˈhast duː|}}

| {{lang|nl|Wat heb je?}} <br /> {{IPA-|nl|ʋɑt ˈɦɛp jə|}}

| {{lang|de|Was hat sie?}} <br /> {{IPA-|de|vas ˈhat ziː|}}

| {{lang|nl|Wat heeft zij?}} <br /> {{IPA-|nl|ʋɑt ˈɦeːft sɛi|}}

| {{lang|fy|Do giest}} <br /> {{IPA-fy|doudoː ˈɡiəst|}}

| {{lang|de|Du gehst}} <br /> {{IPA-|de|duː ˈɡeːst|}}

| {{lang|nl|Jij gaat}} <br /> {{IPA-|nl|jɛi ˈɣaːt|}}

| {{lang|fy|Do dochst}} <br /> {{IPA-fy|doudoː ˈdoχst|}}

| {{lang|de|Du tust}} <br /> {{IPA-|de|duː ˈtuːst|}}

| {{lang|nl|Jij doet}} <br /> {{IPA-|nl|jɛi ˈdut|}}

| {{lang|fy|Do bist}} <br /> {{IPA-fy|doudoː ˈbɪst|}}

| {{lang|de|Du bist}} <br /> {{IPA-|de|duː ˈbɪst|}}

| {{lang|nl|Jij bent}} <br /> {{IPA-|nl|jɛi ˈbɛnt|}}

Many European languages contain verbs meaning "to address with the informal pronoun", such as German ''{{lang|de|duzen'', the Norwegian noun ''dus'' refers to the practice of using this familiar form of address instead of the De/Dem/Deres formal forms in common use}}, French ''{{lang|fr|tutoyer''}}, Spanish ''{{lang|es|tutear''}} and {{lang|es|vosear}}, Swedish ''{{lang|sv|dua''}}, Dutch ''{{lang|nl|jijen en jouen''}}, Ukrainian ''{{lang|uk|тикати}} ({{translit|uk|tykaty}})'', Russian ''{{lang|ru|тыкать}} ({{translit|ru|tykat'}})'', Polish ''{{lang|pl|tykać''}}, Romanian ''{{lang|ro|tutui''}}, Hungarian ''{{lang|hu|tegezni''}}, Finnish ''{{lang|fi|sinutella''}}, etc. Additionally, the Norwegian noun {{lang|no|dus}} refers to the practice of using this familiar form of address instead of the {{lang|no|De}}/{{lang|no|Dem}}/{{lang|no|Deres}} formal forms in common use. Although uncommon in English, the usage did appear, such as at the trial of Sir [[Walter Raleigh]] in 1603, when Sir [[Edward Coke]], prosecuting for the Crown, reportedly sought to [[insult]] Raleigh by saying,

[[Religious Society of Friends|Quakers]] traditionally used ''thee'' as an ordinary pronoun as part of their [[testimony of simplicity]]—a practice continued by certain [[Conservative Friends]];<ref name="OYM2022">{{cite web |title=Q: What about the funny Quaker talk? Do you still do that? |url=https://www.conservativefriend.org/faq.htm |publisher=Stillwater Monthly Meeting of Ohio Yearly Meeting of Friends |access-date=10 April 2022 |language=English |archive-date=9 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210809211604/https://www.conservativefriend.org/faq.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> the stereotype has them saying ''thee'' for both nominative and accusative cases.<ref>See, for example, [http://www.bartelby.net/248/456.html ''The Quaker Widow''] by [[Bayard Taylor]]</ref> This was started at the beginning of the Quaker movement by [[George Fox]], who called it "plain speaking", as an attempt to preserve the [[egalitarianism|egalitarian]] familiarity associated with the pronoun. Most Quakers have abandoned this usage. At its beginning, the Quaker movement was particularly strong in the northwestern areas of England and particularly in the [[north Midlands]] area. The preservation of ''thee'' in Quaker speech may relate to this history.<ref>{{cite book|first=David Hackett |last=Fischer|author-link =David Hackett Fischer | title=[[Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America]] |publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1991|isbn=0-19-506905-6}}</ref> Modern Quakers who choose to use this manner of "plain speaking" often use the "thee" form without any corresponding change in verb form, for example, ''is thee'' or ''was thee''.<ref name="Quaker Thee">{{cite journal |first=Ezra Kempton |last=Maxfield |title=Quaker 'Thee' and Its History |journal=American Speech |volume=1 |issue=12 |year=1926 |pages=638–644 |doi=10.2307/452011 |jstor=452011 }}</ref>

| author=Cook, Hardy M.
| title=You/Thou in Shakespeare's Work

:'''Queen Gertrude:''' Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.. ''[she means King Claudius, Hamlet's uncle and stepfather]''

:'''Hamlet:''' Mother, you have my father much offended. ''[he means King Hamlet, his late father]''

In traditional dialects, ''thou'' is used in the English counties of [[Cumberland]], [[Westmorland]], [[County Durham, England|Durham]], [[Lancashire]], [[Yorkshire]], [[Staffordshire]], [[Derbyshire]], and some western parts of [[Nottinghamshire]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Peter|last=Trudgill|title=The Dialects of England|date=21 January 2000|isbn=978-0631218159|page=93|publisher=Wiley }}</ref> The [[Survey of Anglo-Welsh Dialects]], which began in 1968,<ref>{{cite book|page=Foreword|last=Parry|first=David|title=A Grammar and Glossary of the Conservative Anglo-Welsh Dialects of Rural Wales|year=1999|publisher=The National Centre for English Cultural Tradition|url=https://archive.org/details/start-of-survey-of-anglo-welsh-dialects/page/n7/mode/2up}}</ref> found that ''thou'' persisted in scattered sites across [[Clwyd]], [[Dyfed]], [[Powys]], and [[West Glamorgan]].<ref>{{cite book|page=108|last=Parry|first=David|title=A Grammar and Glossary of the Conservative Anglo-Welsh Dialects of Rural Wales|year=1999|publisher=The National Centre for English Cultural Tradition|url=https://archive.org/details/sawd-morphology-and-syntax/page/108/mode/2up}}</ref> Such dialects normally also preserve distinct verb forms for the singular second person,: for example, ''thee coost'' (standard English: ''you could'', archaic: ''thou couldst''), in northern Staffordshire. Throughout rural Yorkshire, the old distinction between nominative and objective is preserved.{{Citation needed|date=September 2008}} The possessive is often written as ''thy'' in local dialect writings, but is pronounced as an unstressed ''tha'', and the possessive pronoun has in modern usage almost exclusively followed other English dialects in becoming ''yours'' or the local{{Specify|date=September 2008}} word ''your'n'' (from ''your one''):{{Citation needed|date=January 2018}}

The apparent incongruity between the archaic nominative, objective, and [[genitive]] forms of this pronoun on the one hand, and the modern possessive form on the other, may be a signal that the linguistic drift of Yorkshire dialect is causing ''tha'' to fall into disuse; however, although a measure of local pride in the dialect may be counteracting this.

Some other variants are specific to certain areas.: In [[Sheffield]], the initial consonant was pronounced as /d/, which led to the nickname of the "dee-dahs" for people from Sheffield.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Stoddart|first1=Jana|last2=Upton|first2=Clive|last3=Widdowson|first3=J.&nbsp;D.&nbsp;A.|year=1999|chapter=Sheffield dialect in the 1990s: revisiting the concept of NORMs|page=79|title=Urban Voices|location=London|publisher=Arnold}}</ref> In Lancashire and West Yorkshire, ''ta'' {{IPA|[tə]}} was used as an unstressed shortening of ''thou'', which can be found in the song "[[On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at]]", although [[K.M. Petyt]] found this form to have been largely displaced from urban West Yorkshire in his 1970-1 fieldwork.<ref>{{cite book

A well-known routine by comedian [[Peter Kay]], from [[Bolton, Greater Manchester]] (historically in Lancashire), features the phrase "Has tha nowt moist?”<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP-p6H0E0QU |title=Has tha nowt moist - Youtube|website=[[YouTube]] |date=20 March 2012 }}</ref>

The use persists somewhat in the [[West Country dialects]], albeit somewhat affected. Some of [[the Wurzels]]' songs include "Drink Up Thy [[Cider|Zider]]" and "Sniff Up Thy Snuff".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/homepage/Cider-drinkers-target-core-audience-Bristol/article-1966267-detail/article.html |title=Cider drinkers target core audience in Bristol |work=Bristol Evening Post |date=April 2, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100405190846/http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/homepage/Cider-drinkers-target-core-audience-Bristol/article-1966267-detail/article.html |archive-date=2010-04-05 |access-date=April 2, 2010 |postscript=,}} and [http://www.wurzelmania.co.uk/ Wurzelmania.] somersetmade ltd. Retrieved on 12 September 2007.</ref>

* [http://www.shaksper.net/archives/1993/0938.html You/Thou in Shakespeare's Work] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070225013204/http://www.shaksper.net/archives/1993/0938.html |date=2007-02-25 }} (archived forum discussion)