User:Bruce/"Thou" and "thee" at Sutherland

Two sisters from Yorkshire

Brother Vic and Sister Annie Shane were baptised as members of Sutherland Ecclesia in the mid 1950's when I was small child. They were also close neighbours, and "Aunty Ann" was my other mother. She was from Yorkshire, and grew up with the singular forms of English, but rarely used them because she had been taught that they were too informal and supposedly "uneducated". So I treasure moments when her pronouns lapsed into the intimate forms — "Ah, th'art a rum 'un, Bruce!"

When I was older and studied the history of English I asked her if she used "thou" and "thee" with other children when she was young. She did, of course.

Another Sutherland member from Yorkshire was Sister Joyce Everitt. When I asked her the same question, her reply was "Oh yes! . . .  we were never allowed to, mind!"

Importance

Reading the Bible we don’t need to be users of “thou” and “thee” in daily life (!) but we do need to understand the distinction between singular and plural pronouns. This is especially important if we are not using translations that make the distinction clear, whether by using the old singular forms (e.g. KJV, RV) or by footnotes and/or paraphrases (). See

• "Thou shalt not eat thereof..."
• "adam" the common noun
• Genesis 2:16-17