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English Language Problems (lemmy.ca)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

In French (and probably many other languages) first person plural is more polite. People in England started defaulting to "you" as it was a safer bet socially, and "thou" fell out of use.

English also used thorn (þ) before for "th" but printing presses didn't, and substituted "y", which I suspect contributed.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Wikipedia confirms, in particular on this page on the expression ye olde.