#also why i love learning about thai and korean levels of formality bc it says a lot about what the characters choose to use with e/o

[feuqueerfire]

Linguistic Choices in Daily Life

My mom just told me a story where 2 people were on a business-related call, realized they both speak Bangla and started speaking Bangla. 

There are 3 levels of formalities/registers in Bangla, used for 2nd or 3rd person pronouns and the corresponding particle endings on verbs. 

Since this was a business call, the expectation is “apni” (the highest formality which is expected of formal situations, for younger people to older people, to those of higher status, for similar age/status adults before they become close, etc). 

However, A started calling B with “tumi” (the middle formality which is expected of people you’re familiar with, are the same age or younger, kids/children of the same age before they become close or to be polite), which confused and slightly offended B (understandable I think). So, B asked people whether this was normal, whether A used ‘tumi’ because they somehow realized out B is younger than them, or if A thinks highly of themselves and thinks of B as someone of lower status lol Then there was somebody who commented that maybe A is from a certain region which doesn’t use the ‘apni’ formality register and calls everybody ‘tumi’

This isn’t really fun I guess if you don’t know Bangla but this choice by A has so many interpretations and each would say something different about A. Also, I wish I knew the genders of A and B.