Re: Spanish Question (with Expanded Politesse)

Roger Mills wrote:
>Kou wrote:
>
>
>So I ask the Spanish teacher at my school (non-native) if
> >Spanish has equivalent forms; she says "no". I'm not convinced. I look it
>up
> >here at home and find "tutear".
>
>Of course.  What a dolt that teacher must be.  Although I've noticed on the
>Ideolengua list, hardly anyone uses Vd., it's all tu or occasionally
>vosotros.
> >
> >And so, is there a Spanish word for "use the 'Vd.' form"? Is there a word
> >for "use the 'vosotros' form"?
>
>There's vosear (~vocear), but that refers to the Argentine (and others)
>practice of using "vos" for 2 sing. e.g. (yo) hablo, (vos) hablás, (él)
>habla.  Imperative hablá. Or sé, sabés, sabe 'I/you/he know(s)'.  I'm not
>sure what they do for real 2 plur., or in the other tenses. Pablo Flores
>can
>tell us......
>
>I'm not sure, but I think I've heard "tratar de Vd." for 'to use the Vd.
>form'
Tangentially related, Swedish has the verbs _att dua_ "to use the informal
2nd pronoun" and _att nia_ "to use the formal 2nd pronoun" (_att_ being the
infinitival marker). My impression is that _att nia_ is mainly used by
people who dislike the use of the formal pronoun on ideological grounds.
Personally I rather like it, partially because you don't have to make the
sg/pl distinction with the formal! (To be complete: _du_ is sg informal
"you", while _ni_ is pl informal, sg formal and pl formal "you" - alot like
"thou" vs "you" in older English.)

> >How do conlangs cope?
>
>
>Kash:  by not having a formal/polite distinction. There used to be, but it
>died out, surviving only in some little-used imperative forms.  Still, if
>you want to be very very polite, or obsequious, you can use _simbi, lumbi_
>'sir/gentleman, madame/lady' (with a 3d pers. verb) for 'you':  aka lumbi
>yamelo yakuka? "Would Madame like to sit down?"
Similarly, none of my conlangs have a formal/informal distinction in
pronouns.

                                                 Andreas

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