Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: You tu e voi

Nei giorni scorsi mi ï¿œ capitato di ascoltare in radio e in tv la 
disputa tra l'uso del tu e del lei, il tutto condito da qualche 
sondaggio. Ad un certo punto, un noto giornalista consigliava l' uso 
inglese del voi(you) meno confidenziale del tu e meno distaccato del 
lei. Sono rimasto sorpreso: se do del YOU ad una persona come si fa a 
capire che ï¿œ un VOI e non un TU? Bah!
Cappellaio

 e non un TU? Bah!
In inglese per mostrare rispetto semplicemente usi un registro formale e 
ti riferisci all'interlocutore chiamandolo "sir/madam" o in alternativa 
con la sua qualifica professionale.
Ciao,
Enrico il Pentolaio.
-- 
La parola tradisce l'ossessione (Baudelaire)

 Cappellaio
Ti ha gi� risposto Il Pentolaio. Aggiungo solo che etimologicamente "you"
nasce anzitutto col significato di "voi", plurale, AFAIK, contrapposto al
"thou", "thee", "tu" singolare. Col tempo per� "you" venne usato anche per
rivolgersi anche a una sola persona, insomma si cominci� a dare del "voi"
a tutti, prima come segno di rispetto, poi come usanza generalizzata, fino
al punto che "you" rimase l'unico pronome di seconda persona nella lingua
corrente, mentre "thou" sopravvive solo come forma dal sapore arcaico in
frasi bibliche e poche altre occasioni . Oggi insomma "you" significa sia
"voi" sia "tu", mentre la distinzione tra registro formale o amichevole si
opera in altri modi. In qualche dialetto anzi si distingue tra "you" 
singolare e "youse" o "you-all" plurale per rivolgersi a pi� persone. 
Vedi 
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=you
Widespread use of Fr. in England after 12c. gave Eng. you the same
association as Fr. vous, and it began to drive out sing. nom. thou,
originally as a sign of respect (similar to the "royal we") when
addressing superiors, then equals and strangers, and ultimately (by
c.1575) becoming the general form of address
[...]
e
http://etymonline.com/columns/do-be-thee.htm
In the Middle Ages, people began to use plural forms in all cases, at
first as a sign of respect to superiors, then as a courtesy to equals. By
the 1600s, the singular forms had come to represent familiarity and lack
of status, and fell from use except in the case of a few dialects, notably
in the industrial north of England. People in Lancashire north of the
Rossendale Forest and Yorkshire used to be well known for their use of the
singular second person pronouns tha (nom.) and thee (acc.). For religious
reasons, the Quakers also retained the familiar forms, though generally in
such a way that thee was used in all cases, along with the third person of
the verb (thee has where grammar would dictate thou hast), and they
brought it to America, where it was current in entire neighborhoods of
Philadelphia till the 1890s and in some farms in the hinterland for
perhaps another generation after that.
So what began as a clear distinction based on number turned into a
distinction based on formality and social status. 
[...]
An author from 1653 wrote that the use of "thou" was generally
contemptuous, or "familiar caressing," and that custom required the plural
"you" when addressing one person.
In English, the shift can be illustrated by the persistence of the Quakers
in using thee when speaking to one person, which began as a provocative
and deliberate flouting of custom in the name of social equality and ended
up being a mere peculiarity of speech, not recognized as anti-social by
themselves or by non-Quakers. 
[...]
-- 
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