The T–V distinction is the contextual use of different pronouns that exists in some languages and serves to convey formality or familiarity.
The distinction takes a number of forms and indicates varying levels of politeness, familiarity, courtesy, age or even insult toward the addressee.
Many languages lack this type of distinction, instead relying on other morphological or discourse features to convey formality.
English speakers today often employ semantic analogues to convey the mentioned attitudes towards the addressee, such as whether to address someone by given name or surname or whether to use sir or madam.
The T–V distinction is expressed in a variety of forms; two particularly common means are: The terms T and V, based on the Latin pronouns tu and vos, were first used in a paper by the social psychologist Roger Brown and the Shakespearean scholar Albert Gilman.
[6] In classical Latin, tu was originally the singular, and vos the plural, with no distinction for honorific or familiar.
However, in the 20th century the dynamic shifted in favour of solidarity, so that people would use T-forms with those they knew, and V-forms in service encounters, with reciprocal usage being the norm in both cases.
This use was progressively extended to other states and societies, and down the social hierarchy as a mark of respect to individuals of higher rank, religious authority, greater wealth, or seniority within a family.
The development was slow and erratic, but a consistent pattern of use is estimated to have been reached in different European societies by the period 1100 to 1500.
[7] This may be represented in Brown and Gilman's notation: Speakers developed greater flexibility of pronoun use by redefining relationships between individuals.
Similarly, a subordinate with a friendly relationship of long standing might use T. For example, a child might use T to express affection for their parent.
During the French Revolution, attempts were made to abolish V. In 17th century England, the Society of Friends obliged its members to use only T to everyone, and some continue to use T (thee) to one another.
[14] An explanation offered was that such online communications favour the philosophy of social equality, regardless of usual formal distinctions.
After 1600, the use of ye in standard English outside of regional dialects was confined to literary and religious contexts or as a consciously archaic usage.
The infrequent use of T in popular writing earlier in the century such as the Paston Letters suggest that the distinction was already disappearing from gentle speech.
In the first half of the 17th century, thou disappeared from Standard English, although the T–V distinction was preserved in many regional dialects.
When the Quakers began using thou again in the middle of the century, many people were still aware of the old T–V distinction and responded with derision and physical violence.
[citation needed] In the 19th century, one aspect of the T–V distinction was restored to some English dialects in the form of a pronoun that expressed friendly solidarity, written as y'all.
A T–V distinction was once widespread in the North Germanic languages but its use began rapidly declining in the second half of the 20th century,[23][24] coinciding with the 1960s youth rebellion.
[24] The V variant has in practice completely disappeared from regular speech in Swedish spoken in Sweden[citation needed], Norwegian and Icelandic.
This can lead to constructions denoting an intermediate level of formality in T–V-distinct languages that sound awkward to English-speakers.
The following is a table of the nominative case of the singular and plural second person in many languages, including their respectful variants (if any): तुम (tum) (familiar) हजुर(-हरू) (hājur[-harū]) (Standard) dumneata (less formal, possibly confrontational) dumitale (less formal, possibly confrontational) matale, mata (regional, possibly confrontational) domniile voastre (archaic) vos (in parts of the Americas, mainly in the Southern Cone and Central America) usted (el otro usted: for informal, horizontal communication in Costa Rica and parts of Colombia) vos, usía and vuecencia/vuecelencia (literary use) vosotros masc.
(Peninsular Spain, Equatorial Guinea, Philippines)[39] vosotros, vosotras (literary) Some languages have a verb to describe the fact of using either a T or a V form.