3 ms·
How do you know that? I know singular they goes a long way back, but this is an extreme claim that I've never heard before.
by blast 4y ago
How do you know that? I know singular they goes a long way back, but this is an extreme claim that I've never heard before.
- sammax 4y agoThey originated around the same time, but singular you was initially only used for addressing superiors/showing respect (using the plural second person pronoun as a singular for this purpose is still a thing in a bunch of languages), a few hundred years later “you” became the standard second person singular pronoun while “thou” fell out of favour.