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

On Thursday, September 27, 2001, at 03:26 PM, laokou wrote:

> From: "Yoon Ha Lee"
>
>> annyeong (I hope no one's offended by the informal mode)
>> hasta luego
>> sayonara
>
> For me, "sayonara" is really a "good-BYE". You say this to neighbors if
> you're moving out of a neighborhood, to classmates when you change
> schools,
> to anyone if you're going overseas for a while, etc.
>
Ah.  Gotcha.  Thanks for the clarification.  :-)  My teach-yourself book
does give "sayonara" as a conversation-ender but the context wasn't clear.
   I'll have to remember that.

> In the sense of  "hasta luego", I'd opt for "jya ne" or "mata ne".
>
Hai.  :-)

> PS  I'm not offended by the informal approach of the Korean, though it did
> seem a couple syllables short of what I'm accustomed to hearing (I speak
> no
> Korean, but isn't there a "-seyo" somewhere in the polite form?). Does
> Korean make the same kind of distinction as the Japanese?
I *finally* picked up a halfway-useful looking Korean text, __Integrated
Korean_, which lists the following speech levels:

deferential: -(seu)mnida
polite: -eoyo/-ayo
blunt: -so/-o (infrequent)
familiar: -ne  (infrequent)
intimate: -eo/-a
plain: -ta/da

"I went there":
Geogi gasseumnida.
Geogi gasseoyo.
Geogi gasso.
Geogi ganne.
Geogi gasseo.
Geogi gatta.

My initial reaction upon seeing this table was, What?!  I don't remember
hearing/using blunt/familiar ever!  Then I went through a verb and
realized I had, I'd just never had it formalized in my head.  (Gaw.  *Six*
  levels?  How did I survive childhood in Korea?)

-seyo occurs when you insert the subject honorific suffix -(eu)se or -(eu)
si before the other suffixes.

So yes, to an "adult equal or a senior" it would be "annyeonghaseyo."

In practice, much of the Korean I learned was the intimate, which you can
get by dropping the -yo (sorry, I called it "informal" before).  Or you
can drop the verb as well just to get "annyeong" (peaceful).

Since this list is probably about half my elders and half age-
mates/youngers, maybe I should just hedge my bets:

Annyeohaseyo!

YHL

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