Thee, thou and the quest to make them reverential

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_moksha
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Re: Thee, thou and the quest to make them reverential

Post by _moksha »

So my question remains unanswered. Were the now archaic words thee and thou part of the common speech of their day and therefor not imbued with any quality of being a more reverential form of address?

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_malkie
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Re: Thee, thou and the quest to make them reverential

Post by _malkie »

sock puppet wrote:Thouest has a stick up thy arse when using these honorifics.


Please get it right, otherwise it's just not reverent enough:

"Thou hast ..."
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_Drifting
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Re: Thee, thou and the quest to make them reverential

Post by _Drifting »

Isn't the correct way to pray to stand in a circle holding hands, alternating male and female, with the females having their faces covered?
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_sock puppet
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Re: Thee, thou and the quest to make them reverential

Post by _sock puppet »

malkie wrote:
sock puppet wrote:Thouest has a stick up thy arse when using these honorifics.


Please get it right, otherwise it's just not reverent enough:

"Thou hast ..."

I stand corrected,

Thou hast a stick up thy arse when using these honorifics.
_Chap
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Re: Thee, thou and the quest to make them reverential

Post by _Chap »

Thinking about this ...

Centuries ago, when 'you' to a singular person was a polite form, the LDS deity must have been mightily displeased when English speaking Christians called him by the more familiar form 'thou' in prayer, as was their habit. Presumably he would have preferred 'you', but they just didn't have living prophets to guide them.

Now he is displeased when people call him you, because the LDS church and its prophet (wrongly) think 'thou' is a polite archaic form, so he wants them to use it, to show they are trying to be polite to him, even though they are wrong.

Would he change his mind if through the efforts of the BYU English department LDS acquired a better grasp of the history of the English language and realized that 'thou' used to be familiar? LDS deity only knows.
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