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Re: CHAT: Politeness in conlangs

From:Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...>
Date:Wednesday, June 9, 1999, 23:14
Barry Garcia wrote:
> For you all, they use the pronoun for "they"
"They"? Very unusual to have a third person pronoun be used for second person. In Watakass=ED, there is no gramaticalized politeness. Their society is pretty egalitarian (except for slaves). Slaves are expected to use "sugatod=EDzkwa" (my elder) or simply third-person agreement for "you", but even that's not too common. Slaves who've been with their master for some time are usually allowed to use "you". Slaves are generally treated much better than the slaves in our history. The polite way to ask someone to do something is to use the future tense with the question, for example "Naizlut=E1ssa-yil-bu?" (will you do it?) --=20 Happy that Nation, - fortunate that age, whose history is not diverting -- Benjamin Franklin http://members.tripod.com/~Nik_Taylor/X-Files/ http://members.tripod.com/~Nik_Taylor/Books.html ICQ #: 18656696 AIM screen-name: NikTailor