Ye (pronoun)

In Old English, the use of second-person pronouns was governed by a simple rule: {{lang|ang|þū}} addressed one person, {{lang|ang|ġit}} addressed two people, and {{lang|ang|ġē}} addressed more than two. After the Norman Conquest, which marks the beginning of the French vocabulary influence that characterised the Middle English period, the singular was gradually replaced by the plural as the form of address for a superior and later for an equal. The practice of matching singular and plural forms with informal and formal connotations, respectively, is called the T–V distinction, and in English it is largely due to the influence of French. This began with the practice of addressing kings and other aristocrats in the plural. Eventually, this was generalised, as in French, to address any social superior or stranger with a plural pronoun, which was believed to be more polite. In French, {{lang|fr|tu}} was eventually considered either intimate or condescending (and, to a stranger, potentially insulting), while the plural form {{lang|fr|vous}} was reserved and formal.

Following the French-language conventions, the word {{lang|ang|þū}} evolved into thou and became the informal second-person singular pronoun. In Early Modern English, ye functioned as both an informal plural and formal singular second-person nominative pronoun. "Ye" is still commonly used as an informal plural in Hiberno‐English and Newfoundland English. Both dialects also use variants of "ye" for alternative cases, such as "yeer" (your), "yeers" (yours), and "yeerselves" (yourselves).{{cite news |last=Hickey |first=Raymond |url=https://www.uni-due.de/~lan300/02_Remarks_on_Pronominal_Usage_in_Hiberno-English_%28Hickey%29.pdf |title=Remarks on pronominal usage in Hiberno-English |work=Studia Anglica Posnaniensia |publisher=Universität Buisberg Essen |date=1983 |pages=47–53 |access-date=2020-11-11 }}

The pronoun is also sometimes used as a literary device, as in poetry, e.g. "Ye are many—they are few!" (Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Masque of Anarchy, 1819).

{{Old English personal pronouns (table)}}

{{Middle English personal pronouns (table)}}

{{Early Modern English personal pronouns (table)}}

{{Main|Ye (article)}}

Ye is also a definite article, a typographic variant of the Early Modern English the. This is often seen in pseudo-Early Modern English phrases such as Ye Olde.

{{Wiktionary|ye}}

• Y'all
• Yinz

{{Reflist}}

{{Modern English personal pronouns}}

{{Middle English personal pronouns}}

Category:Second-person plural pronouns in English