German 'duzen' and ' siezen' — etymology =3F?=
| From: | Philip Newton <philip.newton@...> |
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| Date: | Wednesday, October 11, 2006, 16:42 |
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On 10/11/06, Steven Williams <feurieaux@...> wrote:
> Yeah, what is up with that? Third-person address for
> the second person? When did _that_ start being used,
> and what was the reasoning behind it?
Perhaps because it's more oblique than second-person (even
second-person plural).
No idea, but it's a fairly popular solution -- AFAIK, Spanish (Usted),
Portuguese (o senhor), Italian (Lei), and Romanian (dumneavoastră) all
use third-person address for the second person, though they use 3sg
rather than German's 3pl.
Even English does it occasionally (Does Your Majesty wish to eat now?).
Cheers,
--
Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>