Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2019 January 2

= January 2 =

Respect mood in plural - based on what?
Many languages use the plural as respected mood for a singular (even English use "you" which is basically a plural form of thu). Now my question is: based on what those who started to speak in plural for singular assumed that it is respectful to speak that way? In other words, what does make the plural form more respected when talking to him plurally? ThePupil (talk) 13:33, 2 January 2019 (UTC)
 * There's probably no definitive answer to this, but we have a few pointers at T–V distinction. The article cites one of the seminal linguistic works on the topic as explaining that "plurality is a very old and ubiquitous metaphor for power". Fut.Perf. ☼ 13:56, 2 January 2019 (UTC)


 * The modern English spelling of the former 2nd-person singular pronoun is "thou", but that word started to go downhill in the spoken language of the late 17th century, when it developed strong connotations of informality and intimacy, and was often perceived as disrespectful or insulting when used between people who were not on informal/intimate terms with each other. By the 18th century, "thou" started to be considered archaic/poetic/dialectal.
 * The basic T-V distinction as seen in European languages apparently started developing during the late Roman empire or "Dominate" (see Future Perfect at Sunrise's link).
 * Also, this is not "mood" (which in linguistics usage refers to categories such as indicative/imperative/subjunctive in verbs), but rather an honorific usage. Some languages, such as Japanese, have whole systems of honorific verb inflections... AnonMoos (talk) 15:28, 2 January 2019 (UTC)

Thank you both. --ThePupil (talk) 07:08, 6 January 2019 (UTC)

See also pluralis majestatis (which perhaps unfortunately redirects to royal we) and pluralis excellentiae. --Trovatore (talk) 02:26, 7 January 2019 (UTC)