I'll hijack the punchline of a joke from the 1950s as a title for this excerpt from a New York Times article about language:
In the Kwaio language of the Solomon Islands, the word for “we” differs, depending on whether you mean yourself and the person you’re talking to or yourself and someone else. There are also different words for “we” if you are talking about yourself and three people including whom you are talking to or three people not including whom you are talking to or more than three people. Kwaio can leave an English speaker with we-ness envy.
Reminds me of my introduction to "y'all" during my ten years in Texas, and the sometimes use of "all-y'all" instead.
Y'all and all y'all are the original inclusive term. Totally gender neutral.
ReplyDeleteWe're not all dumb rednecks.
Definitely, anonymous. That's all there is to it. And try explaining the niceties of Bless Your Heart, lol.
ReplyDeletehttps://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-nice-way-to-call-someone-idiot.html
DeleteMaori in nearby NZ is very similar - m k r or t first letters, progressively longer endings depending on the amount of people involved. eg maua we two excluding the adressee, raua they two, taua we two including the adressee, korua you two, matou, ratou, tatou, koutou for 3 or more people...
ReplyDeleteHawaiian has at least some of that too! Not surprising since I suspect y'all can about understand each other without an interpreter
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