Re: Politeness

En réponse à Ian Maxwell <Ian_Maxwell@...>:

>
> I'd be interested in any ideas other people have had for politeness in
> their
> cultures.
>
FWIW, Itakian marks politeness like many European languages on pronouns (or
rather on pronominal endings, since it doesn't have independent pronouns), but
unlike those it marks it on the first person rather than second or third. It
does this by using the class system of Itakian. Like nouns, pronominal endings
mark class (partly. For instance, the 1st person singular pronouns can only
mark class 1 and 2, the two human classes). Normally, a free person would use
class 1 to refer to oneself, while a non-free person (a slave typically) would
have to use the class 2. But a person of class 1 can refer to himself with the
pronoun of class 2 to mark humility towards the listener (referred to with the
class 1 mandatorily, you couldn't use this way of speaking towards someone of
class 2). On the other hand, and only among themselves, the slaves often use
the class 1 together (as long as no free person is in hear distance) to show
that they feel free and equal among themselves. It's a mark of fraternity. On
the other hand, whether you want to be polite or not, you always address a
person with the class it belongs to.

So there we have a system which marks politeness on the first person rather
than second.

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.