Taim anseo chun failte Phadrig an chur romhaibh innui agus cursa stair an Domhain.

I'm here to put the welcome of Patrick to ye today and (the?) history course of the world (world history).

The Irish is not the best...

Thank you so much. I'll try to make the best sense of that i can

Out of curiosity, how exactly is "ye" used in modern Hiberno-English?

American dictionaries have very precise rules for its use (although all are considered archaic now).

This interests me because this isn't the first time I've read or heard it used by native Irish. An old Lithuanian woman back home in Pennsylvania would regularly use "ye" as a 2nd person plural. I say "interestingly" because so far as I know she was born here and probably inherited her English from her own elders, who were undoubtedly in part from the old country. However, I've never heard it used by Irish-decended Americans, even those with decent within one generation from Ireland.

It is used for you plural in a simple way:

I saw ye/yiz/youse yesterday

or even for the impersonal: yiza/yi'd think that

future: yi'll see him yet

conditional: yi'd think that, woulden ya?

At beginning of sentance: ye/yiz/yíz were there

As you can see, it is quite productive; I fancy I have even heard 'wíz were there' (we) once

Is léir gur fágadh bearna sa Bhéarla nuair a chaill muid thou agus a chuir an t-ualach go léir ar you. Cloistear ye, yiz, youse i dtír amháin, agus y'all, all y'all i gcuid de thír eile, agus bainim féin úsáid as you guys de cheal aon rud níos fearr ná sin i mo chanúint féin.

Cinnte...cad a tharla le thou? Cén sórt réisiún ag rith nuair a thit sí amach?

Níl a fhios agam. B'fhéidir go mbaintí úsáid as thou ~ thee go minic le déanamh uasal le híseal agus go n-éirigh sé sin neamh-PhC. Is é sin, go raibh sé níos múinte you a thabhairt ar dhuine agus gur scaip an nós sin i measc an bhourgeosie.

Just as Dennis says, you was used as a form of polite address to the point where thou was felt too intimate/rude to use, first with strangers then with anyone at all. You can see more-or-less the same development in several other European languages--Basque, Dutch, Portuguese, several varieties of Spanish (in Colombia Usted may be used even with children!), etc.

quote:

(in Colombia Usted may be used even with children!)

Wow! Nach suimiúil é sin! An mhalairt ar fad a tharlaíonn i Meicsiceo: úsáidtear "tú" go forleathan, fiú le daoine nach bhfuil aithne agat orthu.

On the other hand, vosotros is obsolete in Mexican Spanish (and Latin American varieties generally). The only possibility for second-person plural address is Ustedes with third-person forms.

Agus dúradh liom go n-úsáidtear "vos" i leaba "tú" in Argentina agus i gCosta Rica... agus in áiteanna eile, gan dabht.

This is another case of a polite (originally plural) form overtaking the singular, since the Old Spanish opposition was tú/vos and vosotros originated as an unambiguously plural form in the same way as "you guys" or "you all". (Cf. Louisiana French vousautres.) Some Romance dialects supposedly preserve a three-way distinction (e.g. Catalan tu/vos/vostè(s)), but in ordinary usage this generally simplifies to two terms.

In HE it exists in possessives too:

Don't forget to bring your (pl) coats: yier coats

ours
yiers
theirs

It's yiers too!

Ye, are (sounds like Yier as well): Ye're ('Yier') back with yier coats again