Languages
I am totally fascinated by all things linguistic. I can speak English and Gaelic. At the Free Church College I studied (Biblical) Greek and Hebrew. I love the French language - its sounds and shapes are so beautiful. Due to my Bavinck interest I’m also trying to pick up a bit of the old Nederlands too.
I’m planning on using the blog to post language related stuff every so often.
Tha mi direach a faicinn de tha dol ann a sheo
Fascinated by linguistics too? Where have you been all my life??? You need to check out my Thou, Thee, Thy, Y’all blog…
You ever read Bill Bryson’s linguistic books?
We need to get Ruairidh into this WordPress business, don’t you think?
The thou, thee, thy stuff is interesting… how thou has come from tu, and I am guessing that you came into English via the French vous; and we’ve amalgamated them into a single you.
When speaking English I find it really frustrating not having a word to distinguish between you singular and plural. I can’t bring myself to say youse, and I can’t pull off y’all.
Tha Gaidhlig torr nas fhearr, le thu agus sibh. Et le Francais aussi, avec tu et vous. En Nederlands ook, met u en jij.
Dutch use is a little complicated. ‘u’ can be singular and plural ; ‘jij’ (or ‘je’
is singular; ‘u’ in its singular meaning was/is used as a polite form.
Dankuwell Willem, dat is het zelfde met Gaelic en Frans!
The plural form of “je” is “jullie”. As Willem pointed out “u” can be both singular and plural, but it is always used as a polite form.
What I think is interesting that in France you would say “tu” when adressing God, but in Dutch one always uses the polite form.
I really missed the polite form in Scotland. You can use it not only as a way of respect, but also when you want to create some distance between a person and yourself.
On the other hand you do start to feel “old” when people are using it when they talk to you.
In Gaelic we also always say ‘thu’ (the less formal form) when addressing God. To address him with ’sibh’ (formal) would be weird.
Strangely, a lot of Gaelic speakers (who address God with the informal form in Gaelic) would always address God in the formal (honorific) ‘thou’ when praying in English. Pourquoi? Je ne sais pas!
Please keep posting about languages! I’d like to be able to leave more comments on your blog, and linguistics is what I know best.
Bien sur, Sarah!