Re: Re: New Pelorian and Language Engineering

From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_...>
Date: Wed, 14 Aug 2002 20:08:12 +1200


Morgan wrote:

>English is infamous for having only one "you", same for plural and
>singluar.

 From what I hear, the French were also going down that route with "tu" almost dying out in favour of "vous". Then came the Revolution and "tu" was revived as a symbol of Revolutionary Equality. But as a perfidious anglo-saxon, I can't quite see the logic.

Secondly vouz is not just a plural you, it's also a formal you (the "you" you use when you aren't close to the other person). German also has a similar custom save the formal you also happens to be the Third Person ("How are they today?", "I'm fine thank you"). Using the informal you when you are not close is rather rude but as it is, I can't quite grasp the level of rudeness involved.

But I'm uncertain that we can actually point to any RW language feature and say because the Lunars have a universal you or the Dara Happans have sixteen different yous, their cultures are like this. The Turkish Language has only one gender yet it doesn't stop Turks from being sexist. I'm not saying that we shouldn't specify linguistic features for glorantha languages but that there's a point in which things become overdone.

--Peter Metcalfe

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