Second person plural pronoun

[MGibster]

When 400 years old you are spell as good you will not.

For my senior capstone class, I had to write a historiography and selected Scottish witchcraft trials as my subject. You don't normally need a lot of primary documents for a historiography, but I came across the Scottish Witchcraft Act of 1563 which contained the following word: Quahtsumever. Obviously there were a lot of other words spelled in stranger manner, but this one absolutely threw me for a loop. To put it in context.

It is statute and ordanit be the Quenis Majestie, and thre Estatis foirsaidis, that na maner of persoun nor persounis, of quhatsumever estate, degre, or conditioun thay be of, tak uipone hand in ony tymes heirefter, to use ony maner of Witchcraftis, Sorsarie or Necromancie, nor gif thame felfis furth to have ony sic craft or knawlege thairof, thairthrow abusand the pepill...

I guess it's whatsoever, but where the hell did the Q come from? Is that supposed to be the WH sound?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

For my senior capstone class, I had to write a historiography and selected Scottish witchcraft trials as my subject. You don't normally need a lot of primary documents for a historiography, but I came across the Scottish Witchcraft Act of 1563 which contained the following word: Quahtsumever. Obviously there were a lot of other words spelled in stranger manner, but this one absolutely threw me for a loop. To put it in context.



I guess it's whatsoever, but where the hell did the Q come from? Is that supposed to be the WH sound?

As you probably know, English spelling didn't start to become standardised until the mid 18th century, as moveable type and dictionaries became commonplace. But the Scots seem to have had a thing about Q, my own name has one. It's pronounced pretty much as a hard "K", possibly "kw" (but that's the anglicised pronunciation).

I would take it to mean "whatever rank or position".

 

[Parmandur]

For my senior capstone class, I had to write a historiography and selected Scottish witchcraft trials as my subject. You don't normally need a lot of primary documents for a historiography, but I came across the Scottish Witchcraft Act of 1563 which contained the following word: Quahtsumever. Obviously there were a lot of other words spelled in stranger manner, but this one absolutely threw me for a loop. To put it in context.



I guess it's whatsoever, but where the hell did the Q come from? Is that supposed to be the WH sound?

Anything in English at is spelled with a "Wh" has a historic "Kwh" sound behind it. More behind than 1563, but there.

 

[MarkB]

For smaller groups, one option is to get numerical. "Hi there, you three are looking well."

 

[Parmandur]

I guess it's whatsoever, but where the hell did the Q come from? Is that supposed to be the WH sound?

OK, so it looks like Q was common in Nortgern dialects during the Middle English period to convey the back of the troat, Germany "hw" sound at the beginning of words like "hwaet" that latter got what sounds, and Scots kept using Q like that for a looooong time:

"Later still, esp. in North. Mid.Eng., the spelling also represented O.E. hw-, Mid.Eng. wh-. In Scot., doubtless owing to the survival of the breathing in this combination [ʍ] (see P.L.D. § 75), the spelling quh- was adopted in the earliest recorded MSS. and survived, in formal documents till about 1730 in relative pronouns and conjunctions, as quhat, quhen, quhereof, quhich, quhider, quhilk, etc. often abbreviated to qt, qn, qreof, qch, qder, qlk, as an archaism in later literature, and is still retained in place-names. For quh- spellings see also wh-."

Dictionaries of the Scots Language:: SND :: q

www.dsl.ac.uk

 

[Paul Farquhar]

and is still retained in place-names.

And in my name!

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

"The lot of you."

"You people."

 

[Gradine]

"You people."

There are many settings you're going to want to avoid that one... probably best to retire it altogether?

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

Agreed. What if we changed it to "you folks".

I also think "the lot of you" is equally offensive.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

There are many settings you're going to want to avoid that one... probably best to retire it altogether?

This term has been discussed in detail several times in this thread