Languages with more than 2 forms of address?

Guest   Sun Nov 18, 2007 9:44 pm GMT
American Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese are the easiest: Portuguese uses only 4 subject pronouns and Spanish 5. tu, vos are not used anymore in Brazilian and vosotros/as and its verbal forms are not used in American Spanish so these forms are archaisms in American spanish: sois, cantasteis, cantariais, cantaréis, que vosotros cantéis and so on
Ian   Mon Nov 19, 2007 12:46 pm GMT
<< American Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese are the easiest: Portuguese uses only 4 subject pronouns and Spanish 5. tu, vos are not used anymore in Brazilian and vosotros/as and its verbal forms are not used in American Spanish so these forms are archaisms in American spanish: sois, cantasteis, cantariais, cantaréis, que vosotros cantéis and so on >>

No, English is the easiest. You just use "you" for everybody.
curious g   Mon Nov 19, 2007 10:14 pm GMT
Don't forget that relatively speaking...English has only recently reduced the second person to a single form "you."

We were still seperating the second person "thou/ye" well into the 1700's.

I am certain this will annoy most of my fellow English lovers, but I wish we could have kept the Middle English verb system...I have always felt it is more logical than our modern grammar in the verb department.
furrykef   Mon Nov 19, 2007 10:43 pm GMT
<<We were still seperating the second person "thou/ye" well into the 1700's. >>

I think that's something of an exaggeration, except in poetry and the speech of Quakers. I estimate that it died out in the 1600s.
curious g   Mon Nov 19, 2007 10:56 pm GMT
Perhaps...

But can't it be debated that if it was found in poetry and the speech of Quakers that it was then it was still in usage ;)
curious g...   Mon Nov 19, 2007 10:57 pm GMT
Sorry...I had two thoughts going at the same time.

I meant to say that if it was found in the poetry and speech of the Quakers, then can't it be debated that it was still in usage?
Domine   Mon Nov 19, 2007 11:18 pm GMT
In Arabic:

singular
Anta (m.) Anti (f.) = informal
Ustadd (m.) Ustadda (f.) = formal
Ian   Mon Nov 19, 2007 11:26 pm GMT
<< I wish we could have kept the Middle English verb system...I have always felt it is more logical than our modern grammar in the verb department. >>

In which ways was it more logical?


<< In Arabic:

Ustadd (m.) Ustadda (f.) = formal >>

Wow! That's very similar to Spanish Usted!
K. T.   Mon Nov 19, 2007 11:46 pm GMT
My reaction to the Arabic was "You're kidding!" I wonder if "mujer" comes from Arabic too.
K. T.   Mon Nov 19, 2007 11:57 pm GMT
Some people still pray with "thee" and "thou" even today.
curious g   Tue Nov 20, 2007 12:16 am GMT
I don't know why, but the all inclusive you has always seen strange to me.

I like the construction of some dialects...and I say dialects because there were a whole mix of ME constructions.

"to love"

ich luve = I love

thou luvest = you (singular) love

he luveth = he loves

sche luveth = she loves

we luveth = we love

ye luveth = you (plural) love

thei luveth = they love
curious g   Tue Nov 20, 2007 12:35 am GMT
LOL...

I don't think so.

It looks like a lot of "th's" with of them together like that, but it really isn't all that bad.

You can find Middle English audio recordings all over the internet. Listen to them and find out...

I always thought it was interesting that we kept some features of the older versions of English but then changed the verbal system...just shows you have evolution can shape a language.
JLK   Tue Nov 20, 2007 1:01 am GMT
I've just search Old English and Middle in Youtube and after watching a few people speaking them, they were lisping all the time. Does ME also has the /X/ phoneme? It sounded so.
Domine   Tue Nov 20, 2007 1:03 am GMT
K.T. Wrote:
">My reaction to the Arabic was "You're kidding!" I wonder if "mujer" comes from Arabic too.<"

Actually they use lembra (emphasising on the a, the -taa marbutah-) to mean woman, which one could say was borrowed from Spanish hembra.
curious g   Tue Nov 20, 2007 1:07 am GMT
This might come as a shock...but You Tube is not all that great for this sort of a thing. Most of the videos I have seen are creations of people that are not very good...

I meant go to a real site like this one:

http://academics.vmi.edu/english/audio/Audio_Index.html

http://mendota.english.wisc.edu/~agbenton/MERP/lang.html

http://geoffreychaucer.org/language/

Now these sites are concentrating on Chaucer Middle English...this is only a little taste of what we call Middle English. There were many dialects throughout its history...