Given my natural aversion to *usted* in Spanish and *vous* in French, I'm starting to think that out of consistency I should adopt the Quaker *thou* in English.

Unfortunately it's a tough bind because the Quakers originally adopted it out of a democratizing instinct — *thou* was the familiar second person and *you* the formal — but in the modern era it sounds archaic, making it sound MORE formal than *you*.

Also it's a very weird thinking to do.

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This is a pretty interesting article about Quaker use of *thee* and *thou*: friendsjournal.org/2007098/

I knew about the general phenomenon and the justification, but I didn't realize that it had come full circle with some Quakers using thee as an informal register 😅

Also a culture war with proxy battles fought over pronouns sounds familiar 😂

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