you | each; every | ||
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simp. and trad. (你每) |
你 | 每 |
Attested as early as Late Middle Chinese, with 每 (měi) functioning as a meaningless particle. At that time, 你每 was an equilibrating disyllabic version of the emerging 2nd. sg. and pl. pronoun 您 (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 -每, by analogy with Mongolian noun plural suffixes -ууд (-uud), -чууд (-čuud), -д (-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 -每 is unclear, perhaps also an Altaic influence. See 您 (nín).
你每