Re: OT: Imperatives (Was: Re: OT: German Imperatives)

In the last episode, on Tue, 15 May 2007 17:49:39 -0700, "David J.
Peterson" <dedalvs@...> wrote:


>
> Jeff wrote:
> <<
> Depends on your perspective, really. In (Peninsular) Spanish, with
> formal forms of address (using the polite "2nd person" pronouns
> "Usted" (sg) and "Ustedes" (pl), you use 3rd person agreement on the
> verb (since the forms originate in the formula "Vuestra Merced" "Your
> Grace" and, accordingly, refer obliquely to a second person using a
> 3rd person term).
>  >>
>
> I always thought it came from Arabic "ustaadh" [?us.'taaD], a
> way to address someone with respect.  It always seemed like
> far too much of a coincidence that two words pronounced
> almost identically and with almost the exact same usage should
> be totally unrelated.  Apparently history says it's so, though.
>
Well, my explanation is the only one I've heard right now, but that one
(yours) actually seems more plausible to me.

Of course it's always necessary to be careful - just because the
Japanese word for "woman" is "onna", and the Italian "donna", for
example, doesn't mean they're related - not least because we know that
"donna" comes from earlier "domina" - but the presence of Moors in
Spain suggests that it is possible in this case, and of course there
are other loans from Arabic in Spanish - Alhambra "the Alhambra",
"alcalde" "mayor", "ojalá" "let's hope so", etc.

The $65,000 question, of course, then becomes: "Is 'ustaadh' used with a
2nd or a 3rd person verb (or some other form)?"

Jeff
--
For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public
relations, for nature cannot be fooled.  - Richard Phillips Feynman

http://latedeveloper.org.uk

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