Re: German 'duzen' and 'siezen' - etymology ?

Den 20. okt. 2006 kl. 11.41 skrev Henrik Theiling:
>
> But I really get annoyed by Ikea having started to address their
> customers as 'Du' on all the signs.  Probably that's considered much
> more cool(tm) and dynamic(tm).  It feels like an insult to me -- I
> don't know them anonymous advertising and managing people and my only
> potential interest is of purely commercial nature, so 'Du' is totally
> out of place.
Is this specific for Ikea or do you see it in other advertising as
well? Maybe it's something the Ikea people are taking with them from
Sweden. Swedes are a little more formal than Norwegians, but not
much. In Norway the duzen-siezen divide has all but disappeared. You
hardly even use the 'polite' pronoun to the king. There is some
tendency for reviving it, but very weak. The feeling I get if someone
tries to say 'De' to me is one of unfriendliness. Addressing by last
name is a little more common, but it tends to strike me as funny when
I'm addressed as just 'Finsen'. We once had a title, 'herr', borrowed
from German I suppose, which means 'Mr.', but this is completely out
of use in speech, and rare in writing.

This 'duzen-siezen' phenomenon is one of the most probably
instinctive language features, I think. We are basically such timid,
insecure animals, so we prefer to keep strangers at some distance
until we learn to trust them. Of course, our ability to do each other
harm is famous.

LEF

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