I am happy to report that depression is lifting; this is thanks in no small part to actually writing about it. I am all too prone to interacting with people only when I feel good and hiding away when I’m depressed, thinking that no-one will want to know me in this state and that all I’ll accomplish is to bring everyone down. But to write about it honestly has been very therapeutic and has allowed lots of other people to open up about their depression: I’ve had many messages of support as well as testimonies from others about what they are going through. People have offered to visit or meet with me; people have said they miss me and one friend even said I was fantastic. This has given me a real lift.
I guess you could say in these situations you find out who your friends are: it used to be that one would distinguish between intimates and strangers by the use of pronouns. A lot of languages still do this, such as French, Spanish, German and Italian, using the informal ‘tu/du’ to distinguish intimates from more formal contacts. Of course it can also be a way of indicating status, which is why the equivalent probably died out in British English.
Interestingly, when Quakers began, one of their distinguishing characteristics was that they addressed everyone as ‘thou’, this being the informal pronoun (the equivalent of ‘tu/du’) and thus putting everyone on the same level. The odd thing is that, thanks to ‘thou’ surviving in religion, nowadays it sounds formal rather than informal.
The trouble is, no-one knows how to use ‘thee’ and ‘thou’ any more. So here’s my handy guide.
- ‘Thou’ is equivalent to ‘I’ and ‘thee’ is equivalent to ‘me’. Examples: ‘what dids’t thou say? I gave it thee.’
- the verb form usually ends in ‘est’ contracted to ‘st’, as in ‘did’st, could’st, hast (the ‘d’ is forgotten)
- the possessive is ‘thy’ with a noun following and ‘thine’ without: ‘thy socks be wet’; ‘these socks be thine.’
Here’s a fuller guide to using ‘thee’ and ‘thou’ correctly, so you’re not caught out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thou
Don’t be like the person who posted this joke on Facebook:
A 19th century Quaker farmer woke up in the middle of the night hearing noises downstairs. He crept down the stairs, cap-lock rifle in hand to discover a burglar in his living room. He took aim and announced in a loud clear voice, “Excuse me, friend, but would thee please move? I am about to shoot where thee is standing.”
The correct version should of course be: ‘Excuse me friend, but could’st thou please move? I am about to shoot where thou art standing.’
Oh, and if you want an archaic plural of ‘you’, try ‘ye.’
Kirk out
Sarada Gray 