Re:The Wisdom in Kung Fu Panda
by unsupp0rted on Wednesday March 23, 2022 @02:54PM
(#30781922)
A lot of these translations were from the 20th century, with "thous" and "let thy"s found only in translated biblical verses and er, these translations of ancient works.
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Re:The Wisdom in Kung Fu Panda
by EdwardDiego on Wednesday March 23, 2022 @06:38PM
(#30784476)
If I'm guessing, they're likely trying to convey the formality or informality of the pronoun used in the original, what's called the T - V distinction (from Latin, the informal tu vs the formal vos)
In English, thou was the informal, you the formal, as the subject in a sentence, with thee and ye the object form. Hence "God rest ye merry gentlemen" is better translated these days as "God rest you, merry gentlemen".
The T-V distinction is also why the Quakers maintained the thou form for some time, to indicate equality among all men (in the gender-neutral sense of the world), as you implied a difference in status.
The question of why the Bible used thous and thees is another interesting rabbit hole.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/16/opinion/sunday/pronouns-q...