Re: CHAT: "Mister" (WAS: Re: New Lang: Igassik)

On Wed, 25 Oct 2000, Dan Sulani wrote:

>     Here in Israel, the situation regarding addressing people
> is a curious mix of formality and informality.
...
> Now the literal translation of "adoni" is "My Lord". (for women:
> /gvirti/ = My Lady ). But the use is something else again! ;-) It can
> mean a respectful "sir". It can also mean "hey, you idiot!" as in when
> the person ahead of you in line at the bank or post office doesn't
> move when a teller becomes available and you shout in his ear "adoni!"
> and point at the teller. :-)
Now *that* would be useful. Calling someone 'you idiot' while they think
you've said 'sir' or 'my lord'. Yes, I can see that would have some
appeal ;-)

--
web.       | Here and there I like to preserve a few islands of sanity
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dragon     | flesh eating dragon if you've got no concept of reality.