Příspěvky: 13
Jazyk: English
robbkvasnak (Ukázat profil) 31. prosince 2015 18:11:23
I find it difficult to only have one word for singular and plural 'you' - both in English and in Esperanto. I resort to circumventions but I do find the languages that I speak that contain two different ones nice. But I am not going to make a suggestion for Esperanto since there are already so many suggestions to 'improve' it. In American English I used 'you guys'. My father used to use 'yu'uns' and some people here use 'y'all'. From an American view, there seems to be a natural desire to find a way to express the plurality of 'you' - even if it is not used in writing.
Miland (Ukázat profil) 1. ledna 2016 10:10:48
robbkvasnak:..find a way to express the plurality of 'you'..You could use vi ĉiuj if you are saying something intended for every member of a group that you are speaking to, and you fear that vi might not get your meaning across.
Bemused (Ukázat profil) 1. ledna 2016 10:58:15
bartlett22183:You might be interested in "thon", short for "that one".
I have long been of the opinion that a language which does not have a sex-neutral third person singular pronoun is somehow slightly defective, and I specifically include my native English.
It was in the dictionaries until about the 1960's.
Unfortunately it was so thoroughly ignored that it not only fell out of use but has been mostly forgotten.
I have found that using it usually results in discussions relating to the need for the use of a sex neutral 3rd person singular, and the original topic gets lost.
The pronoun system is one of the aspects of Ido that I believe make it superior to both Esperanto and English.