Forms of address in Rumiya (was Re: [OT] Scores)

On Thu, 26 Dec 2002 08:56:03 -0800 Padraic Brown wrote:

<<<<<<<<<<<
--- Yscreus il Isaac Pednsam:
> Just wanna thank èl-jèlilo Thomas R. Wier,
> èl-kèrimo Steg Belsky and
> èl-mokhtàramo rèfiko Padraic Brown for their
> assistence.
What are èl-jèlilo, etc.?
>>>>>>>>>>>>
Ah! Those are forms of address in Rumiya.

This Arabo-Romance language pays much attention to politeness. Usually a
person is addressed with a proper word, mostly of Arabic origin, describing
his position in society (smth like European mediaeval titles, e.g. Your
Highness), or your attitude to the addressee. I'm not sure I can find good
English equivalents to them.
- |jèlilo| is smth like "the most honourable"; the best equivalent IMO,
is"Dr.";
- |kèrimo| means "noble sir", a common greeting to a friend (or a client at
hotel, shop etc.);
- |rèfiko| means "colleague", quite a new, westernized form of address,
popular among employees of foreign companies and joint ventures, faculty of
high schools etc.; often criticized by |3olèmá| - "the knowning ones" -
Moslem spiritual authorities. I added |mokhtàramo| "respected" to make it
more polite...

The others I know are almost pronominal words |ostad| "master" and |khatún|
"lady", used as French "vous", I think...

e.g. Hèl kyere Ostad tomar chá? Do you want to drink some tea? (a man to a
friend)
e.g. Hèl es mumken farme estefada a su kàlamo de Khatún? May I use your pen?
(a woman to a colleague at the office)

Surely, there are many other forms of address, but I still need to find
them. Some of them may be obsolete, and some are still in active use.

> Padraic.
Mokhtàramã (=with respect),
Yitzik
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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