tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Feb 13 05:33:19 1995
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Re: "Bon appetit"
According to R.B Franklin:
>
>
> 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? {{:-)
Well, that's pretty much exactly what happened in English.
That's why the Quakers continued to use "thee" and "thou" for
so long: They considered the pluralization of the second person
as a formality to be pretentious and insincere. Their high
value on honesty and clarity forbade them from using the
artificial plural. English didn't start out with only one
pronoun of the second person.
> > 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.
Agreed.
And as for the Power Klingon example, I think that until Okrand
pronounces an explicit rule for formal second person, we should
consider the example to be a mistake... or perhaps a Klingon
waiter uncharateristically savvy to Human ways, bending
language to suit the cultural background of the paying
customer, exploring the potential for such a customer to tip.
> > janSIy }}:+D>
>
> yoDtargh
>
charghwI'
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