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enthusiast
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In Italy we no longer use "voi" (= vous, you plural) as a polite form; it is just used now in the South, and it is archaic.
It seems strange enough, but the polite form, even addressing to an important man, is "Lei" (=She)!
Ciao
Emanuela
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Carpal Tunnel
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>>It seems strange enough, but the polite form, even addressing to an important man, is "Lei" (=She)!<<
Whoa, that IS strange, E! (hope lei don't mind me shortening your name--let me know if lei do.)
How'd that happen, do lei know?
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Honestly, you don't know when you're well off.  Just the choice between tu and usted. If only life were that simple here. There are about a dozen possibilities in Indonesian. After three pages of discussing the issue, my grammar book concludes "The above discussion of pronouns and pronoun substitutes is far from exhaustive. Many other forms occur,...". What I do like, and I wish English had, is two forms of we. Indonesian has kita and kami . Kita is we, including you. Kami is we, not including you. So if I say, for example, "kita will meet my mother at the airport", you're coming to the airport. If I say "kami will meet my mother at the airport", you're not coming. Bingley
Bingley
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>>...first time a stranger young person address you using “usted”...<<
The Afrikaans have a similar custom: the word "Oom" means "Uncle", and "Tannie" means "Aunt". Younger people use it as a mark of respect, regardless of the relationship to whomever is being addressed. I was nineteen when I was first called "Oom". I didn't get over it until years later when my first nephew was born, and I felt I had earned the title!
Wish I knew a way to "mark-up" those words to convey the sounds!
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When I was a child we always used to call our parents' friends Auntie Pam or Uncle Godfrey or whatever their names were.
Bingley
Bingley
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>What I do like, and I wish English had, is two forms of we. Indonesian has kita and kami. Kita is we, including you. Kami is we, not including you.
Hey oom -or are you a tannie?- those words are wonderful!. I would like having them in Spanish too, this “Kami” is the ultimate word-weapon, left on the wrong hands might spread havoc!.
Juan Maria.
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<we always used to call our parents' friends Auntie Pam or Uncle Godfrey or whatever their names were.>
Yeah, that was my experience too. I had so many honorary aunts and uncles that I was well into my teens before I managed to sort out who was what.
Is this a common convention? I suspect so. Are there any interesting similar usages in places other than Indonesia and Oz? (I am afraid I have lost track of your familial origins, Bingley, although I think I read something somewhere here.)
Kindest rgds,
rhapsody lute, aka lusy
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Amongst the many Indonesian forms of address, which can also be used instead of pronouns, are om and tante , taken from the Dutch words for uncle and aunt. They can be used for any older or socially superior person you feel close to as well as your biological uncle and aunt. Some friends of mine, for example, call their boss tante .
I've lived in Indonesia for a long time, but I'm from the South East of England.
Bingley
Bingley
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>>I had so many honorary aunts and uncles that I was well into my teens before I managed to sort out who was what. << Me, too, rhapsody lute, aka lusy. The practise was common in Rhodesia (can't get used to calling my native land Zimbabwe), and it still applies in South Africa, amongst both English and Afrikaans speakers. I dislike the custom and encourage my children's friends to call me David. My nephews/nieces call me "Uncle David" only when they want to annoy me!  Is there a collective/descriptive noun for nieces/nephews?
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addict
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<is there a collective/descriptive noun for nieces/nephews?>
Lipton's wonderful collection of collective nouns "An exaltation of larks" doesn't seem to include nieces/nephews but does have:
a descent of relatives
an expectation of heirs
an ingratitude of children
a caper of kids
a leer of boys
a giggle of girls
and [off topic?] a mutter of mother-in-laws.
Incidentally, David108, do your older friends ever refer to you as DavidCVIII?
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