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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
From Mother Tongue, by Bill Bryson:
Today we have two demonstrative pronouns, this and that, but in Shakespeare's day there was a third, yon, which denoted a further distance than that. You could talk about this hat, that hat, and yon hat. Today the word survives as a colloquialism, yonder, but our speech is fractionally impoverished for its loss.
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Joined: Jan 2001
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 771 |
There's a Spanish equivalent... esta mesa (this table), esa mesa (that table), and aquella mesa (yonder table). "Yonder" is a little rustic for my everyday speech, but that's the way it was described to me when I was learning Spanish...
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Joined: Jun 2002
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
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formerly known as etaoin...
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Joined: Jan 2004
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veteran
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veteran
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475 |
Words for here (by me), there (by you), and yonder (by him) are pretty common in languages. Some languages distinguish also a forth location, yon but not visible to you or me. Hither, thither, and yon.
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