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My English teacher told me that "You" is now pronounced like that because the "th" in "Thou" used to have its own character, which looked a lot like the Y.
by namenotrequired 13y ago
My English teacher told me that "You" is now pronounced like that because the "th" in "Thou" used to have its own character, which looked a lot like the Y.
- Angostura 13y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorn_(letter) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorn_(letter)
- shellac 13y agoSee https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorn_%28letter%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorn_%28letter%29. c.f. "Ye Olde Tea Shoppe".
- merrua 13y agoThats weird. I thought You and thou existed alongside each other as formal and informal. http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/138925/thou-or-you-this-is-the-problem http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/138925/thou-or-yo...
- namenotrequired 13y agoThat's well possible, that often happens with "correct" and "incorrect" versions of a word.
- gjm11 13y agoThat would be pretty astonishing given that the thou/you distinction fairly obviously comes from Latin tu/vos via French tu/vous.
- moioci 13y agoMerriam Webster differs: You -- Middle English, from Old English ēow, dative & accusative of gē you; akin to Old High German iu, dative of ir you, Sanskrit yūyam you First Known Use: before 12th century Thou -- Middle English, from Old English thū; akin to Old High German dū thou, Latin tu, Greek sy First Known Use: before 12th century So "thou" is cognate with German "du", and "you" is related to German "ihr", the plural of "sie", if I'm understanding this correctly.
- gjm11 13y agoYup, you're right and I was, let's say, 99% wrong. (The 1% comes from the fact that "you" and "vos" and "vous" are all related -- but "you" is a cousin of both, not a descendant.) Still no way it's got anything to do with writing "thou" with a thorn at the front and misreading it as a "y", though.