We're spoiled in English. Whether you are my friend or enemy, a man or a woman, young or old, you're always going to be, well, you to me. Even if you are part of a group, you are still you, except in the South where you might be y'all, or in pirates' caves in Oregon, where you would be hey you guuuyyyssss. Grammatically, I don't even have to try, really. Subject or object, still you. Too easy.
But it wasn't always that way, you know. We, the English-speakers of the past (including William Shakespeare and Guy Fawkes, God and Charleton Heston), used to have thou and thee and ye and you, and some special pronouns for the nobility and royalty such as your grace, your highness, your majesty, or perhaps even your sumptuousness. It's this latter group of Early Modern English second person pronouns that I think of when hearing Spanish in South America
Iberian Spanish has just three you's, according to Edu, the Spanish guy sitting in front of me, in the objective form : tu, usted, and vosotros, which anyone who's studied the language can probably recall, vaguely. In Latin America, it's slightly different : tu, usted, and ustedes. And vos, which is like vosotros but for one person only. And su merced. That's right, they say your mercy. Or your grace. Su merced ! It's the year 2014, we've gone to the moon, eradicated smallpox, elected a black man president of America, decided that the year's best book title is "How to Poo on a Date", yet some sad saps in Boyaca or Bogota are still calling their "betters", your grace ! WTF ?
But it wasn't always that way, you know. We, the English-speakers of the past (including William Shakespeare and Guy Fawkes, God and Charleton Heston), used to have thou and thee and ye and you, and some special pronouns for the nobility and royalty such as your grace, your highness, your majesty, or perhaps even your sumptuousness. It's this latter group of Early Modern English second person pronouns that I think of when hearing Spanish in South AmericaIberian Spanish has just three you's, according to Edu, the Spanish guy sitting in front of me, in the objective form : tu, usted, and vosotros, which anyone who's studied the language can probably recall, vaguely. In Latin America, it's slightly different : tu, usted, and ustedes. And vos, which is like vosotros but for one person only. And su merced. That's right, they say your mercy. Or your grace. Su merced ! It's the year 2014, we've gone to the moon, eradicated smallpox, elected a black man president of America, decided that the year's best book title is "How to Poo on a Date", yet some sad saps in Boyaca or Bogota are still calling their "betters", your grace ! WTF ?
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