History: Levels of Politeness in Lojban

Source of version: 1 (current)

One can take a cue from Japanese (''keigi'') & label these attitudinals as follows:

''ga'inaicai''    reverential
''ga'inaisai''    humble & formal
''ga'inairu'e''   formal
''ga'icu'i''      polite
''ga'iru'e''      plain
''ga'isai''       blunt
''ga'icai''       rude

(Note that ''iocai'' can be substituted for ''ga'inaicai'' ktp; & this
presumably distinguishes personal from social use of these signifiers. I.e. the ''ga'i''-series is implicit ''ro'a'' & the ''.io''-series is implicit ''ro'anai''.)
* I disagree.  ''ga'i'' is defined in relation to rank (note the word 'formal', above).  Dilbert would address his boss as ''ga'inai'' of some sort, but would certainly not be using ''io''. -- mi'e noras.

One suggestion is to use the top level to address ''cevni'', the second ''kesfange'', ''larcu dacti'', & ''lijda ralju''; the third, ''minde remna''; the middle one, ''remna drata''; the fifth, ''tinbe remna''; the sixth, ''skami'', ''noryru'i'', & ''danlu''; & the last one, ''ti'ocpi'', ''cinki'', & ''spati''.

''Seems to me that ga'icu'i should be "plain", the midpoint between the two. --((xod))''

Yeah, ((nitcion|I)) agree. (My intent was for this to be the default level for strangers, which in most languages that recognize these distinctions is a tad formal. The next level below it, is familiarity.)
* A silly intent, Michael. If the level is unmarked and normal and default, you're not seen as making any extra effort to be polite. You're seen as just talking normally. So there will be a natural tendency towards 'inflation' of any politeness markers, which will drift up the scale. Better to make politeness higher up the scale to begin with. That's what these languages do: they may be polite by default, but the default is decidedly marked linguistically. -- nitcion
** Familiarity, 'tutoiement' (''lazyjongau'' maybe?)...

And Michael, you can oracularly suggest all you want, but there's a fair few humans in this world I like to think of in ''ga'icai'' terms... (''fu'e.iosai mi do tugni fu'o'')
History: Levels of Politeness in Lojban

Source of version: 1 (current)

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