Re: Korean politeness levels ( wasRe: Tonal Languages taken to extremes)

From: "Yoon Ha Lee"

> deferential: -(seu)mnida
> polite: -eoyo/-ayo
> blunt: -so/-o (infrequent)
> familiar: -ne  (infrequent)
> intimate: -eo/-a
> plain: -ta/da
This is fascinating stuff and I will keep this post, since I watch Korean
soaps on the International Channel, though I understand not a word  (as with
Nik's relationship to German, I don't find it "pretty", but I am
inexplicably compelled to listen to newscasts and soap operas in it. Too,
there is the "atmosphere", "timbre" ("funiki" in Japanese), that feeling of
closeness one feels when, say, rural folk talk in quaint terms (and I don't
speak Korean!) about rice crops or something)) . What I meant to ask,
though, was whether Korean made a distinction between "buh-bye" and
"good-BYE".

Kou

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