why did English speakers stop using thees and thous?

Y'all is not slang, it's part of our dialect.

Yes, I've adopted it to my personal version of Standard American English. I spent most of my childhood in the Deep South, though I always considered myself a Yankee (as Southerners define it). But English needs a distinct plural form of "you" and since that old word no longer has that unambiguous function, I like the organic form of the Southern construction. It seems natural to me anyway. Less forced than that other innovation of mine, using "they/them" as generic intersex pronouns in place of privileging "he, him" which I know was an artificial "reform" imposed by scholars with a frankly sexist agenda.

The contracted form y'all certainly conveys a sense of informality, sometimes I stretch it to "you all." But we need it in modern English and I won't do without it!
 
The strange thing about that is, in prayers today "thou" thine, thy are used to refer to God. Since God is the ultimate social better to a mere mortal, shouldn't it be "For yours is the kingdom the power and the glory forever amen, instead of "For thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever?"

I agree, until I went into uni, I thought thee/thine etc. were used to refer to higher-ranked people. So maybe make an ATL based on this premise?
 
Got It!

I believe it was the opposite:

First Person Singular : I / me / my / mine
Second Person Singular: thou / thee / thy / thine (used in "familiar" register)

First Person Plural: we / us / our / ours
Second Person Plural : ye / you / your / yours (used in "polite" register)

Question: Was there ever an OE pronoun pronounced like "mou" meaning "I"? Was the initial phoneme of the first person plural pronouns a "w", surviving only in "we"? Resulting in first and second person pronouns looking something like this:

mou / me / my / mine
thou / thee / thy / thine

we / wou / wour / wours
ye / you / your / yours

I could easily see the initial "w" in "wour" and "wours" being assimilated into the "ou" diphthong, and hence being lost. "wou" to "us" would be more problematic, but a possible path could be: wou > wous > ous > us.

Thats Worsle'ees!

It is actualy spelt (according to the spelling Gummage head, professor Worsle Gummage) W wer OH wer Are wer Ess wer El wer Ee wer Oh

It's true - ask Aunt Sally ifn you don't believe Old Worsle!
 
Me:as in my, as in 'me mate' (my friend).
Us:as in we, as in 'us is starving frozed' (we are rather cold).
They:as in those, as in 'they maids' (those young ladies).
He: as in an inanimate object as in 'wor's he to?' (where is that thing?)
Wodger: as in an interrogative, as in 'wodgergonerdoo' (what will you do about the matter in question?) n.b. not a town in Australia.
Meece: Plural of 'moose' (mouse).
Divant:as in do not, as in 'me marrer divant naw' (my friend is not aware).
Innit: as in confirmation 'tis innit?' (that is the case, is it not?)

Or, when seeking to push through a group of people, 'mind yer backs' (plural) but 'shift th'self' (singular).

The wa'er in Majhorker ain't wha' i' or'er (the water in Majorca is not quite how it should be.)

Welcome to the world of english like what they talk.
 
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First Person Singular : I / me / my / mine
Second Person Singular: thou / thee / thy / thine (used in "familiar" register)

First Person Plural: we / us / our / ours
Second Person Plural : ye / you / your / yours (used in "polite" register)

Question: Was there ever an OE pronoun pronounced like "mou" meaning "I"? Was the initial phoneme of the first person plural pronouns a "w", surviving only in "we"? Resulting in first and second person pronouns looking something like this:

mou / me / my / mine
thou / thee / thy / thine

we / wou / wour / wours
ye / you / your / yours

No, there was never such a case.
 
No, I believe that all of the Indo European languages go back to a form like Ego/eko although the next level back might have. I don't remember the reconstructions of the personal pronouns in Nostratic except that something like me was in it.
 
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