from vy to oni

[Edward M Dumanis]

Talking about "Vy" in relation to a third person singular, it is
interesting to note that Italian "Lei" (She/Her) is used as a polite
form of addressing a singular person in Italian.

Sincerely,

Edward Dumanis <dumanis at buffalo.edu>

On Thu, 22 Dec 2005, Henning Andersen wrote:

> To the question of the origin of the polite vy one might add that of 
> the polite oni for a single third person referred to in a speech act 
> s/he is witness to. Is this a 'mere' analogy to vy? Or did it exist 
> when the use of vy was introduced?
> 
> H
> 
> >Hi,
> >
> >Thanks to all those who have striven to put me on the right
> >path regarding the "polite vy". I am following up all leads
> >with the captiousness of old age. However, I offer this to
> >be going on with, by way of Alina Israeli:
> >
> >Paul Friedrich
> >"Structural Implications of Russian Pronominal Usage (1966)"
> >in: Language, Context, and the Imagination. Essays by
> >Paul Friedrich
> >Selected and Introduced by Anwar S. Dil
> >Stanford University Press, 1979, pp. 74-75
> >
> >French determined Russian pronominal usage. Only ty had been
> >employed till about 1700, whereas "... the French manner of
> >address to one person in the plural number appeared in the
> >eighteenth century and rapidly became current among the
> >educated circles" (Isachenko 1960: 414). By 1800, more or
> >less when French was instituted as a "passport," the use of
> >the plural vy as a formal and respectful singular, on analogy
> >with French vous, had become established and launched on its
> >independent course, although subsequently reinforced and subtly
> >influenced by the pervasive French bilingualism and constant
> >exposure to French novels and plays.
> >
> >A.V. Isachenko
> >Grammaticheskii stroi russkogo iazyka v sopostavlenii s
> >slovatskim. Morfologiia. Chast' vtoraia.
> >Bratislava, 1960, p 414
> >
> >Pri obrashchenii v russkom iazyke, kak i v ... frantsuzskom i dr.
> >upotrebliaetsia tak nazyvaemaia forma vezhlivosti, obrashchenie
> >"na vy" (vykanie). V russkom iazyke eta frantsuzskaia manera
> >obrashcheniia k odnomu litsu vo mnozhestvennom chisle poiavilas'
> >v XVIII veke i ochen' bystro voshla v obikhod obrazovannykh
> >krugov.
> >
> >In due course I shall post a summary of my findings.
> >
> >S Novym godom!
> >John Dingley
> >
> >--------------------
> >http://dlll.yorku.ca/jding.html
> >
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> |||||   Henning Andersen
> 
> |||||   Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
> |||||   University of California, Los Angeles
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