Why were the gender distinctions removed from "you" in english?

by [deleted]

[deleted]

macoafi

Where did you find that that's a gender distinction? (I just tried to look this up because I'd never heard of this) Ignoring Wiktionary (because come on...), I find "thouest" used in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night to mean "calling someone 'thou'", but not as a gender thing.

if thou thou'st him some thrice, it shall not be amiss

(with the ' being a missing e)

"Thou'st" can also be a contraction of "thou hast." Could you give an example where it appears to be a gender thing?

The history I'm aware of regarding "thou" is about its disappearance in favor "you." "Thou" was singular, and then it became common to use the formal "you" for people who were your social "betters." Eventually practically everyone was called "you" instead of "thou" (outside of certain parts of northern England that still say "thou" to this day). By the 19th century, saying "thou" at all in normal conversation (ie, not quoting an older source such as the Bible) was a distinctive characteristic of Quakers (who refused to acknowledge the social hierarchy). When Quakerism started in the 1600s, "thou" was still used for people of lower rank, so Quakers were regarded as being very insulting for calling nobles and royals "thou."

If you speak any Spanish, using "thou" would've been like using "tú" and so inappropriate for strangers or nobles. English went with using the equivalent of "ustedes" for all tú/vosotros/usted/ustedes usage.

larqy

You may also want to post this to /r/etymology

5firtrees

"Thou" isn't a gendered pronoun. It is an informal you (like du in German). I'm assuming you want gendered nouns and articles (like der/die/das in German).

I do think English did have gendered nouns/articles in front of nouns at some point, but I couldn't tell you more than that.

Searocksandtrees

Hi, leaving aside the "gender" question, if you're still interested in the demise of thou/thee/thine, there have been a few posts on that subject