Social Glass

I spent some time in Mexico last weekend visiting my brother and his family.  His wife’s from Venezuela, he’s from Colorado, any they have a daughter who was born in Mexico.  They speak to her in Spanish and English at home, but mostly she speaks Spanish (I’m always fascinated by little kids who speak a foreign language, or who speak English with a non-North American accent).  Years of studying Spanish in university paid off, and I found I was able to speak with my niece and the odd taxi driver with only minor difficulties.

While in this environment I was reminded of the usefulness of the word ustedes in Spanish.  We don’t have this word in contemporary English, but loosly translated it means all of you, as in como están ustedes (how are you guys in English). But after having become used to ustedes while speaking Spanish, I find it awkward having to say you guys or you (hoping the inferred plurality is picked up by the recipients).  It just seems inefficient.

So I did some research and found that indeed in old-English a literal translation for ustedes did exist.  Ye was used to refer to all of you (plural), while you meant, well, you, in the singular sense.  Why would we remove ye, a compact, easy to pronounce word from modern English?  How much easier would it be to say how are ye instead of how are you guys?  Ye does sound very Shakespearean, but then again Australians still say fortnight instead of “two weeks”, and that to me sounds Shakespearean too.

It seems interesting that a language construct would devolve becoming less efficient, not more.  Maybe I’ll just stick to Spanish so I can use ustedes.