Re: "Register" a grammatical term

On Thu, Aug 21, 2008 at 3:40 PM, ROGER MILLS <rfmilly@...> wrote:

> BTW, except for dual number, all the distinctions you mention above exist in
> Malay/Indonesian (and in Kash, though most of the high-level forms are
> falling into disuse), and most certainly in Javanese, which in many cases
> even has distinct vocabulary depending on familiar - respectful -
> ultra-respectful.  And I think some special vocab for use in the palaces of
> the few remaining Sultans, and when referring to the pre-Islamic gods.
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.  He may have been
exaggerating for effect, though.   It was in a context, I think, where
he was arguing against revival of the obsolete-almost-as-soon-as-
the-language-was-born intimate pronoun "ci".  (He argues, IIRC,
that Zamenhof put the intimate pronoun in to satisfy certain speakers
of languages with formal/informal pronouns who would complain
if it were absent, but deliberately gave it an unpleasant sound
so no one would actually us it for very long.)

--
Jim Henry
http://www.pobox.com/~jimhenry/conlang/fluency-survey.html
Conlang fluency survey -- there's still time to participate before
I analyze the results and write the article

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