Re: CHAT: Politeness in conlangs
| From: | Boudewijn Rempt <bsarempt@...> |
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| Date: | Thursday, June 10, 1999, 12:32 |
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On Thu, 10 Jun 1999, vardi wrote:
> >
>
> If shauldan means "wise man" and "shauldir" means "wise woman," does
> that mean that I am simply "wise" ??
>
> Yours wishfully-thinkingly,
>
> Shaul Vardi
>
Not only wise, but astute, too!
Actually, when rereading my own posting, I was rather surprised
by the lack of symmetry in the Denden pronominal system. Some
sets distinguish gender in the singular number, and not in
the plural number, for other sets it's just the other way
around. I'm at a loss to explain this fact.
Another small point: the second person plural middle grade honorific
pronoun, _di_, can also be used as a second person singular
pronoun and seems to confer some extra politeness. Maybe
a a-bit-above-middle-grade-honorific pronoun... In the related
Den'naha language, the high grade honorifics function as the middle
grade honorifics, while the low grade honorifics have dropped out
of use.
Boudewijn Rempt | http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt