Talk:thou
Latest comment: 2 years ago by This, that and the other in topic shalt: used with the pronoun thou or its relative equivalent
't says "archaic or dialectal" in the uppermost English entry. Can anyone verify that some dialects have kept it?Dakhart 02:31, 24 August 2011 (UTC)
- Yes, there are still some dialects that have it. In some, the form is invariant; others preserve the cases. It is still used in the British dialects of Derbyshire, Durham, Lancashire, Staffordshire, Westmorland, and Yorkshire counties. It is still to be found in the West Country dialects, Orcadian Scots, and Shetlandic Scots. In Northern Staffordshire, the form is invariable: thee coost (thou couldst). In Yorkshire, the forms are tha (nominative), thee (objective), thy (genitive).
- In the U.S., many areas have replaced it with new forms. In the South, we have formal you (singular and plural) and informal y'all (usually only plural, sometimes singular). —Stephen (Talk) 03:54, 24 August 2011 (UTC)
- Yes, there are some that have. Cf. Wales, Katie. 2004. "Second person pronouns in contemporary English: The end of a story or just the beginning?", Franco-British Studies 33: 172-185. (http://cvc.cervantes.es/lengua/coloquio_paris/ponencias/pdf/cvc_wales.pdf) (date of access: 13 Jul 2011). Ryba g 14:45, 10 September 2011 (UTC)
shalt: used with the pronoun thou or its relative equivalent. What's relative equivalent mean here? --Backinstadiums (talk) 15:18, 15 June 2020 (UTC)
- It means "who", as in "thou who shalt be exalted" or whatever. This, that and the other (talk) 11:06, 9 October 2022 (UTC)
