ludicrous descent to the commonplace.

[lifftchi]

I find myself wanting a second-person plural quite a bit of the time. Usually in constructions like, "Could y'all send me a DTD for the dms on-the-wire format?" (The Wikipedia helpfully points out that I could also say "youse", "use", "yinz" or "ye". Helpful, that

Comments

[slave_to_anime]

It is kind of annoying to be stuck using English, yes. Maybe adopt the Spanish? Use ustedes or vosotros or something like that? I mean, if the Japanese can use English loan words, why can't we borrow terms liberally too?

Obviously, not serious.

[lifftchi]

Obviously. Ustedes is the third-person plural.

But seriously, I think it's important to push the boundaries of the language. On the one hand Sapir-Whorf wasn't entirely right -- language doesn't entirely circumscribe thought -- but it comes close. When we extend the language, another barrier appears, and so on, forever. Only by pushing can we discover what the next boundary is.

[braisinhussy]

My memory's a bit shaky, but I'm thinking back to my middle/high school Spanish classes, and Ud. and Uds. are the more formal versions of "you," singular and plural. The verb forms they take are the third person, but they translate as second person. Tu vs. Ud. and vosotros vs. Uds.

[lifftchi]

Mmm. I think you're right, but that usage is not universal. I seem to recall that Mexican Spanish doesn't use "vosotros" much, but continental Spanish does? I was mapping from French, whose "vous" is a going concern.

We can make an analogy with English, where the third person is used to make a sentence more formal. (Just try it in the previous sentence.)

[braisinhussy]

I use "y'all" a fair amount. It's a handy pronoun.

(I was born in the South, so I have the legal right to use it in my California-speak. It's a fact.)

[lifftchi]

I've never heard a "y'all" out of you in my life. I'll believe it when I hear it.