ARmy Rumour SErvice

**Glad_its_all_over** · 19-06-2012, 22:55

A couple of facts:

Yule is from Norse hjul, which is to do with wheels and turning - in Scandinavia, Christmas, the Midwinter festival, is still called Jul, as it marks the point where the year turns back towards Summer. Not a God, a calendar marker.

The "Ye" as in "Ye Olde Tea Shoppe" etc, is actually not a proper thorn, but an accepted (originally scholastic) abbreviation for the th ligature. Came into use considerably after the disappearance from written Middle English of the original thorn character.

The original second person singular pronoun in English was "thou" and the second person plural pronoun was "ye" in Northern dialects (see here Danish and Norwegian "i" for second person plural pronoun) and "you" in Southern dialects. Unlike German and the Scandinavian languages, which use the third person (Sie, De, etc) plural pronoun for formal use, reserving the second person plural pronoun for informal address to collective groups (Ihr, I, etc), English maintained the second person plural pronoun for formal use until it also absorbed the second person singular pronoun for all vocative uses.

**HIGHLANDER_SPY** · 19-06-2012, 23:09

And I think you will find the correct spelling for an old car is JALOPY !!!

**Brotherton Lad** · 20-06-2012, 07:36

And, as they say in Yorkshire, don't thee thou me, sither.

**LeoRoverman** · 20-06-2012, 09:03

Originally Posted by HIGHLANDER_SPY

And I think you will find the correct spelling for an old car is JALOPY !!!

Depends on the Jalopy

**LeoRoverman** · 20-06-2012, 09:12

Originally Posted by Glad_its_all_over

A couple of facts:

The original second person singular pronoun in English was "thou" and the second person plural pronoun was "ye" in Northern dialects (see here Danish and Norwegian "i" for second person plural pronoun) and "you" in Southern dialects. Unlike German and the Scandinavian languages, which use the third person (Sie, De, etc) plural pronoun for formal use, reserving the second person plural pronoun for informal address to collective groups (Ihr, I, etc), English maintained the second person plural pronoun for formal use until it also absorbed the second person singular pronoun for all vocative uses.

Well now I've learned something new, I was under the impression that Y[th] was interchangeable depending on the writer.

**Brotherton Lad** · 20-06-2012, 09:28

Originally Posted by LeoRoverman

Well now I've learned something new, I was under the impression that Y[th] was interchangeable depending on the writer.

Not all 'y's are thorns. Some are just 'y's (or j, or ge or hg).

**benjaminw1** · 20-06-2012, 10:17

Originally Posted by Brotherton Lad

And, as they say in Yorkshire, don't thee thou me, sither.

'appen...

**Stonker** · 20-06-2012, 22:14

Originally Posted by Peejl

Teutoberger Wald also, and the Oder-Neisser line was as important as the Weser. I'd type a bit more but I can't persuade the fucking thing to understand what a new paragraph means. Grr.

Anyhow, it brought a flood of memories to mind. I miss it.

Neither of which rivers was a more than a fraction as wide as the Russian rivers on which Sov sappers and friends practiced their opposed river X-ings in the cold war days of my (heroic?) military youth.

A quick look at the troop totals, and the force ratios on the Ostfront in WW2, in relation to the rate of Red Army westward advance, after the Ivans had knocked over the boundary markers at the eastern edge of Der Vaterland would be instructive, at this point in the thread, I feel.

"Dreadful" pretty much sums up the feeling that - back in the day - would ensue as a consequence of any kind of systematic analysis I made of the Blue:Red force ratios.

They didn't need to be especially good: they just needed to be many, and to keep on coming.