Christophe Grandsire wrote:
> English is the only European language that doesn't distinguish singular vs.
> plural "you" on a regular basis, although most English dialects have found a
> way to distinguish singular from plural, showing that the distinction is
> considered important.

Some dialects make the distinction obligatory.  "You" can only be used
as a singular in my dialect, unless followed by a plural noun (like,
say, "you conlagers").  For plural I use "y'all" or "you guys".
("Y'all", in fact, can only be used for 3 or more in my idiolect, but
most people in the part of Florida I came from used "y'all" for 2 or
more)

> True, but that doesn't include the pronouns, which when used always take the
> suffix "-tachi" (or "-ra" for "kare": he/him)

Or -gata for more polite reference (impossible with first person), so
that "you-plural" can be "anatatachi" or "anatagata", for example.  I
think the other 2nd person pronouns are too informal to use -gata.

> True. And it's true that there are plenty of languages which just don't mark
> plural on nouns. But even in those languages, and even when in those languages
> pronouns pattern like nouns, number is always marked in some way on pronouns.

Not always in third person.  Altho, I think first and second person are
almost always distinguished by at least singular/plural

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