A Conversation for We

Royal We

Post 1

Gameli

The Royal we does make sense, if you consider how it came about.

In many languages, there are multiple alternatives of the English word 'you'.
For example, in German you have 'du' for informal purposes (for friends, family, children), 'ihr' for informal purposes in the plural, and 'Sie' for formal purposes. In Dutch there are 'je' and 'u', informal/formal, and in French 'tu' and 'vous'.

In old German 'ihr' was used for formal you, because it was considered more polite to speak to someone in the plural. Then, at some point it was decided it would be even better to speak to someone in the 3rd person plural (they). 'Ihr' is retained for judges and royalty, I think (but Germany having no manarchy and never having been in court in Germany I'm not 100% sure).

English used to have multiple you forms, 'you' and 'thou'.
Compare how in English judges, royals, ambassadors etc are addressed as 'your honour, your majesty, your highness, your excellency'.

The 'we' for 'I' is a variation of this form - people such as royalty would use the plural form for themselves when talking to person of a lower social class(i.e. everyone). This has just outlived the various you forms, possibly because it is used so rarely.


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