Re: CHAT: Politeness in conlangs

On Wed, 9 Jun 1999, Barry Garcia wrote:

> Reading the discusssion about politeness prefixes, i am wondering, how
> does everyone here handle them in your languages? In Sakatda Ka Kadomo
> there is a familiar you (umi) and a formal
> you (ami). For you all, they use the pronoun for "they"
>
Denden has four full sets of pronouns that indicate a degree of respect
(and a set of pronouns that is used between lovers). I've always termed
them insulting, normal, polite and very polite, but nowadays I prefer low
grade honorific to very high grade honorific. There used to be another
set of pronouns used in conversation with the emperor, and the Broyan
stage language still has those.


Low Grade Honorific

   1    2m    2f    3m   3f
 s ye       yai       rai
 p yer  yanan yanir rao  ras

Middle Grade Honorific

   1    2m   2f    3m    3f    3INAN
 s do   dan  dir          da
 p dos     di      dasan dasir dao

(Only in the third person plural of the most unmarked set of pronouns
does Denden make a distinction between animate and inanimate)

High Grade Honorific

   1      2m     2f       3m        3f
 s sero   seri   sera        seras
 p serir  serdan serdir serasdan serasdir


Very High Grade Honorific

   1        2/3m     2/3f
 s laka     shauldan shaulyadir
 p lakadir  shauldir shaulyadirdir

The second and third person very high grade honorific pronouns show the
pattern discussed before: a third person pronoun used as an extra-polite
second person pronoun.  _Shauldan_ and _shauldir_ are titles, roughly
meaning 'wise man', 'wise woman'.

Affective

   1     2     3m     3f
 s ni    te    dam    drai
 p nidir tedir damdir draidir

These pronouns are used between or about people that love each other
both emotionally and sexually. They are inappropriate when the relation
is that of a courtesan and a patron or that of a parent and a child. The
third person pronouns simply mean 'young man' and 'young woman'.

There are also affective, despising and flattering verbal
suffixes. I'm currently leaning towards reanalyzing the
flattering verbal suffix as a respectful attitudinal suffix.

Boudewijn Rempt  | http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt