Etymologically
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вы

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Pronunciation

Forms

вы (vy)[1] The oblique cases are вас, вам, ва́ми, о вас.[2][3] As a polite form for one person it is often capitalised, Вы.[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old East Slavic вꙑ (vy), from Proto-Slavic *vy (“you (plural)”).[1][4][5] The word is common Slavic: Old Church Slavonic вꙑ (vy), Ukrainian ви (vy), Belarusian вы (vy), Bulgarian ви (vi) and вие (vie), Serbo-Croatian ви (vi), Slovene vi, Czech vy and Polish wy.[6][5]

Slavic lost the Indo-European nominative Proto-Indo-European *yúHs, which survives in Lithuanian jūs, Latvian jūs, Old Prussian ioūs and Sanskrit यूयम् (yūyám).[6][5][1] In its place it generalised the form of the oblique cases, from the stem *wos-, *wes-;[7][6] in Old Russian and Old Church Slavonic the form was both nominative and accusative, just as Latin vōs was first an accusative.[8] Anikin derives the Slavic form, originally an accusative plural, from *u̯ōns or *u̯āns, remade after the accusative plural of nouns from a form like the Latin one and nearly identical with Old Prussian wans (“you (acc. pl.)”).[5] The cognates include Avestan vō and Ancient Greek ὑμᾶς (humâs).[6]

Vasmer suggests that the old nominative was given up because, after ⟨-jy-⟩ became ⟨-ji-⟩, it would have sounded like the pronoun of the third person;[6] Anikin also allows such phonetic reasons,[5] and Derksen dates the remodelling after the oblique cases before the delabialisation of /ü/.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Ostromir Gospel of 1056–1057 has „Въскую мыслити вы зъло въ сьрдцихъ вашихъ?” “Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?” (Matthew 9:4).[9] In 1057 вы also served as a dual, as in вы глѥта “you two say”, and a 12th-century birchbark letter has вы ведаѥта “you two know”.[5] The Izbornik of 1076 has the genitive вась.[10]

Semantic evolution

Вы at first meant only several people; the use for one person was learnt later.[11] ESRJa, after Sobolevsky, holds that Russian took it from the Romance languages through Germany and Poland, and finds it first in a 16th-century romance of Tristan;[11] SlRJa quotes a 16th-century letter addressed to one lord, „Вы, господине, моего посла … отпустили” “you, sir, let my envoy go”.[12] Wiktionary instead finds the formal singular in East Slavic texts from the 11th to the 16th century, under Medieval Greek influence, spreading in society under Peter the Great with French and German models and established by the 19th century.[1] The 18th-century dictionary records the polite вы to a single person.[13]

Dal explains the polite вы as treating one person as worth many, and records выкать “to say вы” beside тыкать.[14] Быть на вы describes formal relations, and иду на вы “I come against you” goes back to the chronicle story of Prince Svyatoslav warning his enemies before attacking.[2][15]

Timeline

  • 1056–1057 – вы “you (plural)” in the Ostromir Gospel.[9]
  • 1057 – вы as a dual, “you two”.[5]
  • 1076 – the genitive вась in the Izbornik of 1076.[10]
  • 16th century – вы addressed to one person.[12][11]

Meanings

Pronoun

  1. you (plural): the people addressed, not including the speaker.[2][16][1]
  2. You (singular), the polite form of address to one person.[2][16][1]

Usage notes

The prefix вы- “out” is a separate word, from Proto-Slavic *vy- (“out”);[4] Old Russian also had вы as a preposition equal to из “out of”.[17]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Ozhegov, S. I.; Shvedova, N. Yu. (1997), Tolkovyj slovar' russkogo jazyka [Толковый словарь русского языка], 4th ed., Moskva: Azbukovnik, p. s.v. вы
  3. ^ Ushakov, D. N. (ed.) (1935–1940), Tolkovyj slovar' russkogo jazyka [Толковый словарь русского языка], 4 vols., Moskva: Sovetskaja ènciklopedija / OGIZ, p. s.v. вы
  4. ^ a b c Derksen, Rick (2008), Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 4, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 533
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Anikin, A. E. (2007–2021), Russkij ètimologičeskij slovar' [Русский этимологический словарь], vols. 1–13 (A–D), Moskva: Rukopisnye pamjatniki Drevnej Rusi / Institut russkogo jazyka RAN, p. 9, 118
  6. ^ a b c d e Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress, p. 1, 366
  7. ^ Shaposhnikov, A. K. (2010), Ètimologičeskij slovar' sovremennogo russkogo jazyka [Этимологический словарь современного русского языка], 2 vols., Moskva: Flinta / Nauka, p. 1, 154
  8. ^ Chernykh, P. Ya. (1993), Istoriko-ètimologičeskij slovar' sovremennogo russkogo jazyka [Историко-этимологический словарь современного русского языка], 2 vols., Moskva: Russkij jazyk, p. 1, s.v. вы
  9. ^ a b Vinogradova, V. L. (1965–1984), Slovar'-spravočnik «Slova o polku Igoreve» [Словарь-справочник «Слова о полку Игореве»], 6 vols., Moskva / Leningrad: Nauka, p. s.v. вы
  10. ^ a b Avanesov, R. I. et al. (eds.) (1988–), Slovar' drevnerusskogo jazyka (XI–XIV vv.) [Словарь древнерусского языка (XI–XIV вв.)], vols. 1–13, Moskva: Russkij jazyk / Azbukovnik, p. s.v. вы
  11. ^ a b c Shansky, N. M.; Zhuravlev, A. F. (eds.) (1963–2007), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka [Этимологический словарь русского языка], vols. 1–10 (A–M), Moskva: Izdatel'stvo Moskovskogo universiteta, p. 3, s.v. вы
  12. ^ a b Barkhudarov, S. G. et al. (eds.) (1975–), Slovar' russkogo jazyka XI–XVII vv. [Словарь русского языка XI–XVII вв.], vols. 1–31, Moskva: Nauka / Azbukovnik / Lexrus, p. 3, 176
  13. ^ Sorokin, Yu. S. et al. (eds.) (1984–), Slovar' russkogo jazyka XVIII veka [Словарь русского языка XVIII века], vols. 1–24, Leningrad / Sankt-Peterburg: Nauka, p. s.v. вы
  14. ^ Dal', V. I. (1880–1882), Tolkovyj slovar' živago velikorusskago jazyka [Толковый словарь живаго великорусскаго языка], 2nd ed., 4 vols., Sankt-Peterburg / Moskva: M. O. Vol'f, p. s.v. вы
  15. ^ Kuznetsov, S. A. (ed.) (1998), Bol'šoj tolkovyj slovar' russkogo jazyka [Большой толковый словарь русского языка], Sankt-Peterburg: Norint, p. s.v. вы
  16. ^ a b Evgen'eva, A. P. (ed.) (1981–1984), Slovar' russkogo jazyka v četyrex tomax [Словарь русского языка в 4 тт.] (MAS), 2nd ed., Moskva: Russkij jazyk, p. s.v. вы
  17. ^ Sreznevsky, I. I. (1893–1912), Materialy dlja slovarja drevne-russkago jazyka po pis'mennym pamjatnikam [Материалы для словаря древнерусского языка по письменным памятникам], 3 vols., Sankt-Peterburg: Imperatorskaja Akademija nauk, p. 1, s.v. вы