Re: Formal/informal pronouns

Tristan McLeay skrev:
 > On 25/04/08 17:26:28, Benct Philip Jonsson wrote:
 >
 >> FWIW my lady once met the man who in younger years
 >> instigated the Swedish reform to use informal address
 >> with everyone. The old Swedish system was nowhere near as
 >> simple as using the plural pronoun to address a single
 >> person formally, but involved using the other persons
 >> *title*, i.e. academic or occupational title. _Min Herre,
 >> Herrn, Frun, Fröken_ 'Sir, Mr, Ma'am, Miss' were only
 >> used when/until you knew the correct title, so you'd e.g.
 >> say something like _Vill Kandidaten ha en kopp kaffe?_
 >> for 'Would you like a cup of coffee, sir?' when speaking
 >> to someone who happened to have a B.A.!
 >
 > And here was me thinking the German system was needlessly
 > confusing! Are/were there different words for different
 > sorts of bachelors
 > e.g. BSc, LLB, Bachelor of Cognitive Science etc ?

No, they were all _kandidat(en) '(the) bachelor', but there
was a distinct feminine _kandidatska(n)_ -- not that there
were many female academics back then.

At the same time a woman holding a doctorate was _doktor(n)_
just like a male one, while a woman *married* to a doctorate
holder was _doktorinna(n)_.  Cute, eh?


/BP 8^)>
--
Benct Philip Jonsson -- melroch atte melroch dotte se
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   "C'est en vain que nos Josués littéraires crient
   à la langue de s'arrêter; les langues ni le soleil
   ne s'arrêtent plus. Le jour où elles se *fixent*,
   c'est qu'elles meurent."           (Victor Hugo)

Reply