Fie upon thee   When he was MD at Kent Opera he conducted multiple modern works, including a stonking KING PRIAM which is still around on VHS sometimes

Never mind VHS, it was issued on DVD last year:



but is it more "modern" than Mozartian Stravinsky?

I had always assumed the generic course of action was just to wait until they did, and reciprocate.

(oh bugger, I didn't read the three subsequent pages of discussion on this matter...sorry if I've resaid anything...)

I was intrigued that Norrington appears to have persuaded George Clooney to appear in King Priam...


And Italian has the complication that the polite form of you is the singular third person feminine, for vostro schiavo, if I remember aright, (and I am happy for corrections.)

And Russian doesn't.  (Which I'm finding is actually taking a bit of getting used to...).

Dutch also has the archaic gij/ge for you, but in Flanders people use gij/ge formal and informal and u for you when they're talking to friends. Very confusing.

In the past, the polite u for you was always written with a capital U like Sie in German. Nowadays we don't see that anymore.

Good heavens! I wrote we!

Between German homosexualists the "du" has long been entirely usual as may be seen in the title of this marvellously inspiring magazine now regrettably defunct:


The Japanese system is as Members might expect rather more complex:

First-person singular ("I"):

  watakushi (very formal)
  watashi (formal)
  atakushi (formal, female speaker)
  boku (informal, male speaker)
  washi (informal, older male speaker)
  atashi (informal, female speaker)
  ore (very informal, male speaker)
  as-shi (very informal, adult male of the Bay area of Tokio)
  atai (very informal or vulgar, female speaker)

First-person plural ("we"):

  watakushidomo (very formal)
  watakushitachi (formal)
  watashitachi (formal)
  bokutachi (informal, male speakers)
  bokura (informal, male speakers)
  atashitachi (informal, female speakers)
  atashira (informal, female speakers)
  oretachi (very informal, male speakers)

Second-person singular ("you"):

  [none] (very formal)
  anata (formal)
  kimi (informal, male speaker)
  omae (very informal, male speaker)
  anta (very informal)

Second-person plural ("you"):

  [none] (very formal)
  anatagata (formal)
  kimitachi (informal, male speaker)
  kimira (informal, male speaker)
  anatatachi (informal)
  omaetachi (very informal, male speaker)
  omaera (very informal, male speaker)
  antatachi (very informal)
  antara (very informal)

Third-person singular, male ("he", "him"):
  kare

Third-person singular, female ("she", "her"):
  kanojo

Third-person singular, neuter ("it"):
  [none]

Third-person plural ("they"):
  karera (living things only)

Some, or all, of these words (depending upon which authority one consults) are classified not as a separate part of speech (pronoun) but as nouns. The information conveyed in English by pronouns (both personal and possessive) is by your Japanese most often conveyed by other means.