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 Post Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2021 11:29 am 
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spox wrote:
The use of the pronoun "thou" (and "thee", and "thy") is a case in point. It is just the singular of "you", what you use in addressing one person. It's also the familiar form; if you called the king "thou", you might run the risk of losing your head. With kings and other powerful, high-class folk, you have to use the "polite" plural form "you".

Interesting. In current English, "you" is both singular and plural, with no formal form. I didn't realize "you" was the plural (and also more formal??) version of "thou" in old English. But didn't they use Thee/Thy/Thou in prayer, to refer to God? Which, I would think, would use a formal/respectful form.

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[I don't know what "Grammercy" means, but I assume it's a name or title or something like that. Unless it's some French-derived term meaning "thanks".]

Bingo. It comes from "grand merci," literally "big thanks." Or "many thanks." The French pronunciation of "grand merci" sounds a lot like "grammercy," since the "d" is mostly silent.

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I'm not completely sure that "witen" is an appropriate verb here. ("I wot", "thou wist") "Witen" is for knowing facts rather than e.g. being familiar with people. Maybe some German speaker could weigh in.

German uses "wissen" (to have knowledge of something) and "kennen" (to be acquainted with someone). Those are the infinitive forms (equivalent to "to know" in English), and the conjugate forms "ich wisse," "du wisst," "Sie wissen," etc are similar to the wot/wist/etc of old English.

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 Post Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2021 12:09 pm 
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garyfritz wrote:
In current English, "you" is both singular and plural, with no formal form.

Or you could say that the formal form is always used, and there is no longer a familiar singular form.

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 Post Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2021 1:10 pm 
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If we have converged on one form, I would say the informal form has won out. American English in particular is very informal. The concept of a formal address form is foreign to most native-born Americans, who speak only American English.

Why would you think the formal form has dominated?

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