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Re:Behemoth, bully, thief: how the English language is takin... by saget on Friday July 27, 2018 @03:13PM (#17628417)
English is also nice in that there is no "baked in" formal or informal use of the language. I think it breaks down barriers in conversations with a superior or a random stranger. I wonder if this has any larger scale effects...
Re:Behemoth, bully, thief: how the English language is takin... by YaxelPerez on Friday July 27, 2018 @03:17PM (#17628471)
Re:Behemoth, bully, thief: how the English language is takin... by jessaustin on Friday July 27, 2018 @03:50PM (#17628755)
It's funny that "thou" seems so formal now.
Re:Behemoth, bully, thief: how the English language is takin... by dorchadas on Friday July 27, 2018 @05:03PM (#17629381)
And it's all because of the King James Bible! They used 'thou' there when talking to God because they wanted it to seem informal and portray him as a friend. It's quite funny how after it fell out of use, it was reinterpreted as the exact opposite, with people being more formal when talking to God.
Re:Behemoth, bully, thief: how the English language is takin... by dsfyu404ed on Friday July 27, 2018 @04:10PM (#17628911)
There is and there isn't. Turning your Northern Alabama up to 11 might not have any impact when in Northern Alabama but sure won't do you any good in front of a SF VC. Likewise if your way of speaking is, ahem, on the "darker and more urban" side.
Re:Behemoth, bully, thief: how the English language is takin... by Koshkin on Friday July 27, 2018 @04:41PM (#17629178)
How many languages have these sub-languages "baked in"?
Re:Behemoth, bully, thief: how the English language is takin... by saget on Friday July 27, 2018 @05:00PM (#17629361)
I don't know about all languages but Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, and Mandarin all have many formal and informal conjugations of words
Re:Behemoth, bully, thief: how the English language is takin... by spraak on Friday July 27, 2018 @10:01PM (#17631063)
Tibetan is very interesting in this way. Standard/Lhasa Tibetan has itself many registers, and then there is Classic Tibetan, Literary Tibetan, and I forget the proper term but there are also secret/esoteric forms specific to e.g. certain Buddhist and Bön teachings
Re:Behemoth, bully, thief: how the English language is takin... by NihilumExNil on Friday July 27, 2018 @04:11PM (#17628923)
With all due respect, madams and sirs, I beg to differ.
Re:Behemoth, bully, thief: how the English language is takin... by chrisseaton on Friday July 27, 2018 @06:05PM (#17629812)
Those are terms of address, and in English you can just avoid them entirely. In other languages you can't say some quite basic things, such as articles, without explicitly choosing a level of formality, which can be awkward.
Re:Behemoth, bully, thief: how the English language is takin... by jotm on Friday July 27, 2018 @03:22PM (#17628511)
Not in the country of origin, lol

Edit: England, bitch.