posted
I have decided that I shall address the Queen of Men as 'thou', as in "Canst thou pass me the milk, please?" There are two justifications for this:
She is my wife, and it makes sense to be informal; I would not address her as 'vous' in French, 'Sie' in German, or 'De' in Norwegian, so what's with the second-person-plural in English?
She is my wife, and it makes sense to be respectful; I would address her as 'vous' in French, 'Sie' in German, and 'De' in Norwegian, and while consistency is a fine thing, these Americans for some reason hear the second-person-singular as being more formal. True courtesy takes into account the tastes of the recipient.
I can't make up my mind which is the better justification; what do you lot think?
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
If my husband (to be) phrased the question that way, my response would be two-fold: Part 1, the First: I'd giggle. Part 2, the Second: I'd ask him when he started drinking milk.
Posts: 691 | Registered: Nov 2008
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Blayne Bradley
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posted
Stop butchering ye ole' english!
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I always loved hearing older couple refer to each other, even when talking to each other directly, as Mr. and Mrs. It sounded... quaint?
I refer to my wife with any number of names, often from across the house, including "Mrs. Bridges," "You wily beast," "Heart of my hearts," and "O my Queen."
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
I tend to simply restructure the wording on many requests I make of my wife.
Whereas with one person I might say, "Could you pass the milk please," I might say to her, "Honey, have we got any milk that can be spared for me?" The mere fact I speak to my wife in a unique way seems to accomplish the same thing as being extra polite.
Obviously if I spoke to her in a unique way that was also mean, it wouldn't work.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
I've occasionally addressed my wife as "mommy". Comes from telling the kids "mommy asked you to pick that up" and "let's go see mommy", etc. I used to wonder why my grandfathers would address their wives as "mother" but I'm getting it now.
That has nothing to do with formality, of course. Sometimes I venture a "dearest wife", or "sweet lady". That isn't really about being formal either.
We DO make a point of "please" and "thank you". We always have. The nice thing about talking that way with each other is that all of the kids pick it up automatically.
Posts: 4287 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
My uncle is a practicing Quaker who uses the familiar form of address (thee/thy/thou) instead of the formal (you/yours). As a kid, I used to regard the familiar as a more formal form of address, because, after all, that's what they use in the Bible, right?
Anyway, just random observations from me again, I guess...
Posts: 1099 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
Kenshin's awesome... I'm all for that. At the same time, I just like the idea of having a special way to talk to a special person. Thee and thou has always seemed more intimate to me than you, because you is used with everybody. I think it's also that I reread Dark Tower recently Posts: 14 | Registered: Nov 2009
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posted
So, what made you decide to address your wife as "thou" since the contradictory justifications seem interchangeable for your purposes?
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
How should I know? Am I a well-designed computer, with access to its own source code, that I should be able to trace my motivations in my execution stack?
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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quote:Originally posted by King of Men: These Americans for some reason hear the second-person-singular as being more formal.
I'm pretty sure it's not just Americans, but all English speakers. And really, it isn't that we find the singular form more formal, but that we find the archaic form more formal, regardless of its erstwhile meaning.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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posted
I eventually had to give this up. I found myself hesitating before every sentence to check that I'd got my pronoun right and verbs conjugal-ated correctly.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
My wife and I take the opposite course of action, seeking the least possible formality, sometimes referring to one another as stink-face or rumble-bum.
Posts: 3950 | Registered: Mar 2006
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