Chinese

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you each; every
simp. and trad.
(你每)

Etymology

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Attested as early as Late Middle Chinese, with (měi) functioning as a meaningless particle. At that time, 你每 was an equilibrating disyllabic version of the emerging 2nd. sg. and pl. pronoun (nín). During the Yuan Dynasty the creolisation of Mongolian and Northern Chinese to form the Han'er language resulted in immoderate usage expansion of the plural suffix -, by analogy with Mongolian noun plural suffixes -ууд (-uud), -чууд (-čuud), (-d), нар (nar). After the overthrow of the Yuan Dynasty and the decreolisation of Han'er, 你每 gradually developed into the present-day 2nd. pl. pronoun 你們你们 (nǐmen). The origin of the suffix - is unclear, perhaps also an Altaic influence. See (nín).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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你每

  1. (singular) you
  2. (in the plural) you

References

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  • 《历史语言学研究》(Studies on historical linguistics),第2辑 (Series 2),2009,商务印书馆 (The Commercial Press)