So, I'm teaching myself basic latin, and I've come across something that I noticed while learning french. the English language does not have a "plural you". You see, in french and latin there are 6 basic conjugations of a verb: (I), (you), (he/she/it), and the plural versions: (we), (plural You), (they).
How this works goes something like this. you have a friend, who's with his family and they're all in line to get in a theater. How would you tell him that he and his family are to go to the front of the line? "you can go to the front of the line" which leaves out the family, or maybe "they can go to the front" which would leave out your friend, but probably, "You and your family can go..."
Not really a serious problem, but at least there's a solution. this one comes from the blue ridge mountains, or more specifically, the Beverly Hillbillies "Y'all". If I read it correctly, y'all is a contraction of you-all and satisfies the needs of a 5th person nicely. so, now, "to Be" can be fully conjugated as
I am
you are
he is
we are
y'all are
they are.
Humbly submitted for direct inclusion to the next Oxford dictionary....
No comments:
Post a Comment