Language and evolution of "you"

It is amazing how the perspective of one country's culture changes according to the way they speak. I'm a native Greek speaker studying in Sunderland, UK. Part of my masters degree has to do with Natural Language Processing (NLP).

I always considered the loss of distinction between singular and plural in second person one of the most easy going thing of the English language. In Greek and other languages like French and Polish there is a 'politeness' usage of plural when talking to a senior individual in order to show respect. Whenever I was using the word "you" it always registered in my mind as singular, implying that there is a pally relationship between myself and my interlocutor. Apparently "you" in medieval times was the plural form having a Shakespearian "though" for singular.

English are more polite than most people think after all! ;)