tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Feb 11 20:35:13 1995
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Re: "Bon appetit"
On Sat, 11 Feb 1995, Jeremy Cowan wrote:
> Almost every natural language I have studied uses the second person plural
> for the second person singular formal. It seems a popular thing to do.
> And what makes you say that DIvI' Hol doesn't use it. When (in English) I
> want a second person singular formal I certainly use the pronoun for
> second person plural. :)
What kind of second person plural pronoun do you use to address a single
person formally? Y'all? Youse guys? Or are you using "thou" for the
second person singular and "you" for the plural? {{:-)
> Does someone have a grammar explanation for this apparent mistake?
I can usually identify yankees^H^H^H^H^H^H^H people from the
Northern U.S. when they try to mimic Southern speech and incorrectly use
"y'all" for addressing a single person. To my ears, such usage sounds
unnatural and quite affected.
> janSIy }}:+D>
yoDtargh