Zompist Bboard Again

Otto Kretschmer wrote: ↑Wed Mar 31, 2021 6:25 amOf course the pronoun "they" would never enter usage in English. Something would still need to replace it as the 3td person pronouns in singular and plural were too similar.

Erm.. It's not like that stopped "you" from becoming number-agnostic :). In Dutch, we had the same development, but did replace the 2nd person plural pronoun with what's essentially a kind of "y'all". But our 3rd person plural pronoun is identical to the 3rd person singular feminine pronoun (but we still have differences in verbal agreement, but English may have retained that as well, of course).


JAL

jal wrote: ↑Wed Apr 14, 2021 7:17 am

Otto Kretschmer wrote: ↑Wed Mar 31, 2021 6:25 amOf course the pronoun "they" would never enter usage in English. Something would still need to replace it as the 3td person pronouns in singular and plural were too similar.

Erm.. It's not like that stopped "you" from becoming number-agnostic . In Dutch, we had the same development, but did replace the 2nd person plural pronoun with what's essentially a kind of "y'all". But our 3rd person plural pronoun is identical to the 3rd person singular feminine pronoun (but we still have differences in verbal agreement, but English may have retained that as well, of course).


JAL

Remember that most English dialects aren't number-agnostic for the 2nd person. They have just innovated a variety of new pronouns for it, such as the well-known y'all, the commonplace you guys (note that in subsequent references, if not ambiguous, you is commonly used in its place), you lot, youse, you'uns, and so on.