Re: "Register" a grammatical term

Dana Nutter wrote:
> > [mailto:CONLANG@listserv.brown.edu] On Behalf Of Jim Henry
>
> > I think it's in _La Bona Lingvo_ that Claude Piron wrote that
>the only
> > think keeping Indonesian from being easier than Esperanto for
>the
> > average person for whom Esperanto's phonology is a problem is
> > its complex formal/informal pronoun system.
>
>Most of my creations are auxlangs so Indonesian and other
>Austronesian languages did grab my attention when I first
>started looking at them.  I actually have to agree about the
>simplicity factor.  Indonesian really only has a couple of
>difficulties, one being the issue of formal and honorific forms,
>and the other being the use of measure words.
Most of the honorifics are falling by the wayside, I suspect, or occur only
in formal situations. "Saya" 'I' is actually an old humble form (< Skt.
slave IIRC); "beliau" more formal for 3d pers. than dia-- all but gone I
think. The two 'we's' Kami/kita, and 3d pl. mereka live on and have no
formal/infomral connotations.

The only problem was 2nd pers.  Engkau (sg.) and kamu (pl) are definitely
intimate (family and close friends). They introduced "saudara" 'brother' <
skt. early on, but I gather it's in disrepute now; mostly I think you just
use bapak ~pak 'father' (+/- name or title, like Presiden, Jendral,
Profesor) ~ ibu, bu 'mother'.  There is a word for 'unmarried girl/woman'
but usually the assumption is that you're married ;-))).  I recall hearing
"anda" in very neutral situations (e.g. announcements on the train 'please
proceed to the dining car so that anda may enjoy anda's dinner'), but
everyone (30 years ago!!) thought it was really silly and sorta
mush-mouthed.  Recently I see it in Indonesian spam :-(((((

Probably my last pronouncement for a while.  Bye-bye........