- This topic is empty.
-
Posts
-
dande48 wrote:
In modern English, no one uses thou/thee/thy/thine anymore EXCEPT in formal religious context. Addressing God as “you” would be considered disrespectful, despite the fact that it was originally formal. However, referring to God as “y’all”, which was originally a condensation of the term “ye all”, would also be considered disrespectful.
It’s a case of etymological evolution, where words change in meaning over time. I get your point, but if you start saying the Church is “awful”, that Trump’s policies are “fantastic”, telling your bishop that you are “gay”, and declaring that only “husbands” can own property… you’re going to leave people feeling pretty confused (if not outraged).
Regarding the second paragraph, I think within the KJV, thou is clearly used in the familiar sense and we must go with the intent of the translators. It is a very important and significant matter in a theological sense – ironically it plays to LDS doctrine when understood properly.
Secondly, it is not true to say it is extinct in modern English. It is actually still used in several dialects – notably Manchester, the city in England which recently had a terrorist attack, usually in the form “thee”. Manchester is one of the biggest cities in England after London.
SilentDawning wrote:
I don’t really have a problem with Thee, thine, and thought, but if I wanted to change it, I would start by saying prayers that start and end with the various thees and thous. But in the middle I would use you, and yours etcetera. I think there has to be a strong rationale for it though — you have to have a really strong set of reasons for wanting to change the cultural norms that typify Mormonism. Not all are bad; some are good.
I don’t tend to use it in prayers personally, because it is not my natural speech. And I prefer to pray in that. I am a fan of the KJV for reasons I have stated elsewhere. It is far from perfect but I think in literary and stylistic terms it nails it sometimes in a way that some modern translations do not.
However, on a pedant point, if we are going to use thou, it should really have the properly conjugated forms with it – thou hast, thou sittest, thou shalt etc…
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.