Simple subject "I":
I went.
Replacing it with "me":
Me went.
That sounds strikingly wrong. We use it for fake "caveman talk".
However, there was a time when it worked like this:
1st person singular, subject/object:
"I"/"me"
2nd person plural (or polite, formal etc 2nd person singular, yes), subject/object:
"ye"/"you"
Speakers at that time would say:
Ye went.
and would find:
You went.
to sound wrong and weird in the same way we currently find:
Me went.
So what I'm wondering is, how did this "ye"/"you"-->"you" merger happen?
Was the "ye"/"you" form just much more rarely used at the time?
If so, I would expect the merger would have happened before the dropping of the "thou"/"thee" pronouns.
Is it known if this the case?
I would guess the question might be a little complicated by dialects developing differently in isolation, and then influencing each other later, but still, is there a general clear answer to:
Was "ye"/"you" merged before "thou"/"thee" was dropped?