Re: New to the list

From: "Yoon Ha Lee"

> Have to agree about Japanese.  Korean also has a noticeable honorific
> system, but I look at Japanese and wince, mainly because if I ever
> learned Japanese I *know* I'd get it wrong and offend someone.
Yeah, how do North Koreans deal with such a system? Since everyone, save the
Great Leader, is supposedly on equal footing, do they trash such a
hierarchical grammar? Squelch it underground? Chinese doesn't have
honorifics hardwired into the grammar, but the Party often tried to squelch
usages like "nin2" (you, formal), and words like "xian1sheng1" (sir, Mr.)
and "tai4tai" (madam, Mrs.) (opting for the egalitarian "tong2zhi4", comrade
[though some of us were more equal than others]). Since the Deng reforms,
these usages have begun creeping back into the language, though I think
"tong2zhi4" is still widely accepted (interestingly, though, this word in
Taiwan is gay slang for "gay (man)" -- usage I doubt the Party is ready to
party down with).

Just wondering if you knew anything about N. Korean language policy, since I
know in China, language/dialect use can get extremely political.

Kou