Hey! I know you like grammar/language stuff so regarding this post you shared, do you know what pronoun we (English speakers) used before singular "you"?
If you don't know the answer, tell me about a cool bird you saw recently!
(Bonus points if you answer both lol)
once upon a time, you and ye were our plural second-person pronouns (used in different grammatical cases, which English now mostly [but not entirely] signifies through sentence structure rather than noun form, but that's a whole different post), and thee and thou were our singular second-person pronouns (again used in different grammatical cases)
[very briefly: one example of case would be subject and object, or the noun doing the verb and the noun having the verb done to it. you and thee were used when "you" were the object of the sentence (I saw you/thee at the devil's sacrament); ye and thou were used when "you" were the subject of the sentence (what were ye/thou doing at the devil's sacrament? 👀). this is an oversimplification that ignores several other grammatical cases, but it's probably enough to be getting on with]
however, in the later medieval period you and ye also began to be used to address singular people of great importance (sort of like the royal we but used for someone who is not the speaker) as a sign of respect, which is the start of singular-you. over time, people started using you more broadly to address singular people whether of great importance or not (perhaps to be polite or in cases where relative status was unclear), and eventually you entirely eclipsed thee and thou (except in specific communities, such as the Quakers)
additionally, the distinction between you and ye deteriorated later in the medieval period, until we more or less stopped using ye in favor of you, plural, singular, and regardless of grammatical case
however ☝️ you can see the English longing for a separate singular and plural second person pronoun in the proliferation of plural second person variations on you that have popped up regionally, such as y'all, youse, yinz, and more
funnily enough, in some regions history is repeating itself, with y'all becoming a singular second person pronoun and you-all becoming its plural replacement
(this is not universal; some regions use you for singular, y'all for plural, and all y'all for plural with emphasis. but it is an interesting and kind of hilarious phenomenon)
