Re: How and why did English lose "thou"

On Thu, 22 May 2025 09:22:54 +1200, Ross Clark wrote:

On 21/05/2025 10:01 p.m., Stefan Ram wrote:

Grimble Crumble <grimblecrumble870@gmail.com> wrote or quoted:

                  how come "thou" was lost?

 
   According to "You und thou: Studien zur Anrede im Englischen" (1963)
   - Thomas Finkenstaedt, the reason "thou" dropped out of English had
   a lot to do with what was going on in the 1600s:
 
   - There was a big argument with the Quakers about using "thou."
     A lot of folks quit saying it so people would not think they were
     Quakers.

 
The Quakers used "thou" to everyone because they rejected the idea that
some people deserved more respect than others. The story goes that
George Fox was thrown out of his home because he insisted on addressing
his father with "thou".

My father, born in Lancashire in 1910, would jokingly say:

Don't thee thee me. Thee thee theeself and see how thy likes it.

So, just a suggestion that in the Lancashire dialect of the early 1900s
the second person singular was becoming unacceptable.

Best regards,
              Jack Fearnley