[Lexicog] The Irony of Thou

[Fritz Goerling]

Which French of Algiers? Street French probably. The same is true for
creolized French in a number French-speaking countries in West Africa. But
not among educated speakers of French, and certainly not in Senegal where I
continue to hear the best French (due to the influence of Léopold Senghor).

 

Fritz Goerling

Anecdotally, I understand that French in Algiers has already lost the 
formal form as has Spanish in Nicaragua. BB

Fritz Goerling wrote:
>
> I doubt that the distinction between pronouns of "power" and "solidarity"
> (to use Brown and Gilman's terms of their famous 1960 article "The 
> Pronouns
> of Power and Solidarity") will disappear any time soon in at least a 
> couple
> of European languages I know (German and French). If the formal form were
> lost, I would regret it. I wonder to what kind of linguistic 
> strategies one
> would resort, if a variety of nuances in human relations could not be
> expressed by different pronouns any more.
>

 

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