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From: fred@mot.UUCP (Fred Christiansen)
Newsgroups: net.singles,net.nlang
Subject: Re: Second Person Plural
Message-ID: <261@mot.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 11-Sep-85 15:15:58 EDT
Article-I.D.: mot.261
Posted: Wed Sep 11 15:15:58 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 12-Sep-85 01:42:15 EDT
References: <845@abnji.UUCP>
Organization: Motorola Microsystems, Phoenix AZ
Lines: 14
Xref: utcs net.singles:9020 net.nlang:3523

re "formal" vs "friendly" "you":  as you said, in French "vous" is
plural and/or polite/formal, whilst "tu" is singular/familiar.

some interesting observations:
	- in prayers, Protestants seem to refer to God as "tu", whilst
	Catholics as "vous".
	- the Society of Friends (as I recall) used to refer to each other
	as "thou", the singular/familiar, yet that seems formal/archaic to us
	today, a reversal of the original
-- 
<< Generic disclaimer >>
Fred Christiansen ("Canajun, eh?") @ Motorola Microsystems, Tempe, AZ
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