Ye/you
began to be used as a courteous form of address in Middle English in imitation
of French politeness (tu vs. vous). I
think vos was used as a polite form already in late Latin
(originally to address the Emperor), though I've got no references at hand.
English usage remained rather inconsistent for several hundred years, until
thou/thee went out of ordinary use altogether.
Look how Thomas Malory (15th c.) switched from the one to the other form of
address (and back) within a single utterance (for the sake of elegant
variation?):
Sythen [=since] I haue made yow
knygte, thow must yeve [=give] me a gyfte ... thou shalt
promyse me by the feythe of thy body whan thou hast justed
[=jousted] with the knyght, that ryght so ye shal come.
In Polish, wy (pl.) can be
used as a polite counterpart of ty (sg.) in conservative
rural dialects; it also used to be the official form of address between
Communist Party members (thus causing some embarrassment when used in an
informal situation); also when an ancient-régime policeman accosted a citizen in
the street, he would often use the "polite" wy, which didn't
sound particularly courteous in that ominous setting. The normal form of polite
address in Polish is pan (m.)/pani (f.), used
with the 3sg. of the verb. It functions like a honorific pronoun, but apart
from that it's also an ordinary noun meaning 'lord/lady', 'Mr./Mrs.' and the
like.
Piotr
----- Original
Message -----
Sent:
Thursday, August 03, 2000 12:35 AM
Subject:
[tied] Formal and Informal 2nd Person
Why do so many western Eupopean languages have both formal
and
informal forms of the 2nd person and am I correct in believing that
they are relatively recent phenomena; from the last five or six
hundred years perhaps? Did they develop as a result of social change
for instance the rise of a landlord class? I sure that Latin did not
distinguish between formal and informal address. Also are formal and
informal forms found in Slavic, Indic languages as well? Enough
questions for now I look forward to your replies.
David James