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Posted By: wwh yon - 03/22/04 06:26 PM
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.

Posted By: Fiberbabe Re: yon - 03/23/04 02:58 AM
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...

Posted By: Buffalo Shrdlu Re: yon - 03/23/04 12:04 PM
hither is a good word.

Posted By: jheem Re: yon - 03/23/04 02:02 PM
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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