Choice of second-person pronouns can help explain the intersection of language, personality, and culture. Changes in modern Norway are described in which the polite forms "de,""dem"/"dykk," and "deres"/"dykkar" have been replaced in all except commercial, government, or ultra-polite speech by the familiar terms "du,""deg"/"dae," and "din." Some social and linguistic consequences of variation of pronoun choice in both Norwegian and English are sketched. The overall linguistic situation in Norway is used as background for the discussion of pronoun choice, but the history of English personal pronouns is also reviewed from Old English and Middle English to current usage in the Cincinnati, Ohio, area. It is concluded that when the English second-person pronouns are simplified, the simplification favors the power dimension over the solidarity dimension. An independent and much later simplification in Norwegian appears to have favored the solidarity dimension. Contains 17 references. (Author/LB)